The U.S. Coast Guard wants to remove hundreds of buoys along the Northeast coastline to modernize a costly system of using them as navigational markers in the water.
But the plan is getting pushback from Boston-area harbormasters and commercial ship pilots who are concerned about safety.
The Coast Guard said they’re planning to phase out some of the current buoy system and transition to more “modern mariner” navigation practices, including GPS equipment and other virtual and digital tools.
Matthew Stuck leads waterways management and oversees the Coast Guard’s buoys from New Jersey up to the Maine-Canada border. He says, through public input, they’ll begin a long-term project to decide which buoys can be eliminated to make the navigation system “more effective and efficient.”
“Our objective is to identify [aid that are] potentially less consequential, less navigation-risk consequential for mariners, so that we then focus our resources on the most consequential aids,” Stuck said.
Right now, there is no set number of which buoys will be removed. That’s where the public can help: by informing the Coast Guard which navigational aids are critical to remain and why — perhaps those near rocks, shoals or inside key turns.
The specific changes under consideration were publicized earlier this month. The Coast Guard is accepting public comments by email until June 13.
“They’re talking about removing buoys and what we call lateral marks, and in place moving towards electronic means — more reliant on electronic means,” said Salem Harbormaster Bill McHugh.
But that’s his very issue with the project.
“Electronic navigation is wonderful when it’s working — but when it’s not working, that becomes a problem,” he said.
McHugh is against the proposal and said physical markers or reference points are crucial for safe navigation, especially for larger vessels in areas like Salem that have many shoals and narrow channels.
If those buoys are gone, “it’s one less tool in the toolbox,” McHugh said.
Stuck, with the Coast Guard, said about 85% of the buoys and marks perform the highest and most essential function, and that means the others may not be needed.
“Not all buoys are the same. They don’t all serve that same purpose, right? So it’s a matter of parsing out the ones that are the most consequential, the most critical, the more effective at what they do,” Stuck said.
A grid map of the area shows just how expansive the Aids to Navigation (ATON) system is along the local coastline. Stuck said there are about 5,700 federal aids to navigation, including 4,600 buoys.
Stuck said the navigation system is built using steel buoys on steel chains — and, in the salty ocean water, that’s no longer the commodity of choice based on size, cost-effectiveness and durability.
“It’s very expensive. It hasn’t substantively or substantially changed really since the 1980s and 1990s when it reached the size and scope and scale of physical buoy infrastructure that it has right now,” he said.
Michael Peddle, president of the Boston Harbor Association and a professional mariner for 40 years, said the buoys are still important reference points for boats when navigating tricky waterways.
He said their removal is potentially dangerous and could put lives at risk.
“I envision if the current proposal goes through, I am personally not speaking for the pilots, but for myself, I see that they’re not the possibility of a collision or a grounding. And I think it’s almost definite that something bad is going to happen,” he said.
The maritime industry is evolving and changing: Lighthouse keepers, for instance, no longer exist — those are all automated. Paper navigational maps are being phased out, and technology reliant on GPS is becoming more advanced.
But Peddle disputes the idea that he doesn’t embrace new technology because he thinks buoys are necessary for safety.
“I learned from lessons of the past and hope not to repeat them. I embrace new technology, but not at the expense of getting rid of what I know works or going against everything that I’ve been taught,” said Peddle.
