Mariners across New England are elated with the decision by the United States Coast Guard to abandon plans to remove navigational buoys from Northeast waterways. The plan was meant to support modern navigational systems, such as GPS equipment and other digital tools, but it received a flood of criticism from harbormasters, pilot associations and ship captains.
The United State Coast Guard Northeast District said yesterday it received more than 3,200 comments to the Coastal Buoy Modernization Proposal and as a result “there will be no changes to the aides to navigation system (ATON) at this time until further analysis is complete.”
Captain Bob Blair has been a state pilot in Massachusetts for 43 years. He said he wasn’t surprised the agency is abandoning the plan based on the negative comments from people in the maritime industry.
“We’re responsible for guiding ships in and out safely,” Blair said.
When the federal agency first proposed its plan in early 2025, the idea was to remove 350 navigational aids and it sought input from local mariners. There are 5,600 navigational aids in the Northeast district: that includes buoys, lights, day beacons all along the shoreline from the Canadian border to northern New Jersey.
Matthew Stuck, the Coast Guard District’s chief of waterways management, said at the time that the “system is large and expensive and hasn’t changed since the 1990s.”
Stuck said the agency was looking at ways to modernize the system, and identify places where electronic navigation systems could fill the gaps.
“Our objective is to identify aids that are less consequential for mariners,” he said.
But overwhelmingly, commenters told the Coast Guard that the current navigational aids are necessary. The Steamship Authority, the largest ferry service to the Islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, is among the maritime groups reacting to the news announced yesterday.“The Authority continues to believe that the navigational aids are critical to the safety of all commercial and recreational vessels navigating the local waters and that electronic navigation systems are an aid, not a replacement, to the current buoys in place,” a spokesperson for the authority said.
Salem harbormaster Bill McHugh opposed removal of navigational aids, and called the decision to abandon the plan a positive step.
“I’m happy with the decision, but again, we’re going to have to watch it,” said McHugh.
“Keeping all means available to navigate with is what the Coast Guard originally used to preach through their licensing,” McHugh said.
And McHugh added that GPS systems are not foolproof. Areas of the North Shore are also laden with shoals, where visual aids are necessary.
“We all know that electronics do fail. We all know in the world we live in, there can be spoofing on your cellphone,” he said.
The bottom line according to Blair is that they all rely on aids and navigation.
“We rely on their positions. And if we see things that are out of position, which happens with bad weather, then we’re the first ones to notify the Coast Guard to come up and reposition,” Blair said.
The Coast Guard hasn’t ruled out revisiting changes to the ATON system in the future.
