On Tuesday, July 27 with calm seas, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources buoy tender M/V John C. Widener placed NOAA’s latest Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy in 37’ of water at the Gooses Reef site near buoy 78 in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.
This Gooses Buoy is the ninth in the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS). It was funded by the Dominion Resources Foundation through the Coastal Conservation/Maryland and the Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative (MARI), which first placed barge loads of crushed concrete from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge there to make a man-made reef. Since the placement of concrete, the Oyster Recovery Partnership has seeded it with oyster spat; now it should become a productive fishing reef for all.
The big yellow buoy is known as a “Smart Buoy,” as it should be at a cost of over $200,000. It provides information for a lot of different audiences who have varying requirements. First is safety of the mariners, because it provides near-real-time observations on the weather and water conditions found at that site off the Little Choptank River. Its location is 38.33.375 N/ 076.24.882 W for you boaters who want to see it. Mariners can call it up by cell phone anytime at (877) BUOY-BAY or (877) 286-9229. You can get the wind direction, speed, gusts, wave height, water temperature, current strength, and its direction for starters. Need more, using a computer? How about a history graph of past conditions: Is water quality getting better or worse? If it is really hot, humidity is high, and there is no wind, what effects will it have on my crew? If the water temperature is freezing cold, should we wear fleece, gloves, and raingear? Check it all out at by clicking here.
What about all the scientific “stuff” this buoy records? Briefly, it has 34 different sensors it reports on every ten minutes, with a data history recorded. This is the first CBIBS buoy to have bottom sensors for comparison with surface observations. Especially important are the bottom dissolved oxygen, salinity, and water temperature sensors. The former reflects the overall well being of the Bay ecosystem. The latter two show how denser salty ocean water is moving up the Bay, beneath the less-dense fresh water that flows south from the Susquehanna and the other upper Bay rivers.
Fisherman will love this buoy more and more over time for what it does. In addition to the wind and wave conditions that all mariners need, there is Barometric Pressure, which affects fish behavior. The water currents’ direction and speed can run opposite to he wind’s, causing bigger than normal waves. Water salinity affects fish: too low, no bait and no fish. Visit http://www.buoybay.org/site/public/ for all this information, plus more.
In addition to its scientific value, the CBIBS marks the first all-water trail in the National Park Service’s National Historic Trail System. CBIBS shows the route taken in 1607-09 by Capt. John Smith when discovering and mapping the Chesapeake Bay. Using the buoys, several books, and online guides (www.smithtrail.net, www.chesapeaketrails.org), you can follow Capt. Smith’s Trail on the water. Learn what he saw and did during several trips up and down the Bay and how they influenced the history of America. In addition to those resources, when you are near one of the nine buoys, dial up (877) 286-9229 for recordings on history, geography, and seasonal obser
