It's Official, Good Bye BB Buoy (RelocationNorth 30 NM)

[relentless]

It is now official, the BB buoy will be relocated approximately 30 NM to the north. Apparantly there was not enough letters and public outcry for this change. Below is the letter I received today by email.

Thank you for your input regarding the relocation of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy 44018, currently positioned at 41.255 N and 69.305 W (approximately 30 nautical miles east of Nantucket, MA). In addition to your input, we also received feedback from the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The final re-location position of buoy 44018 to the north and west of its current location, to coordinates 42.132 N and 69.813 W (approximately 10 nautical miles east of Truro, MA), was driven in large part by USCG requirements. Most notably, the proposed new location of buoy 44018 will enhance USCG search and rescue operations. This includes improving response times for search and rescue operations in the area, and allowing the USCG to react with more suitable resources based on the observed weather conditions. While other relocation options were considered, such as moving the buoy to the east of Orleans along the central Cape, logistical constraints precluded these as viable options.

From the National Weather Service perspective, the new location of buoy 44018 will improve our ability to forecast marine conditions in the area, provide better confidence on the evolution of conditions for the area east of the outer Cape , and enhance the provision of decision support services.

In addition to input on relocation position options, we received several suggestions to add another weather buoy in the area and leave buoy 44018 in its current location. Unfortunately, the current National Weather Service budget cannot support new weather buoys at this time.

Buoy 44018 is scheduled to be relocated to its new position on or about October 10, 2011.

[amarshall]

Selfishly I don't know, 10 nautical miles east of Truro doesn't seem so bad for us.

New place for bait to congregate.

Bad for the chatham guys.

[cappyD]

Its a weather bouy anyway...did nothing for fishing other than tell people where the fleet would be in 2002 lol

10 miles off the beach doesnt really help on the weather forecast unless youre planning to stay in tight. Bummer as far as Im concerned

[amarshall]

What bottom structure at the old BB kept the fish there?

[CaptainAlex]

The BB's current location is nicely situated on the 30 fthm slope of the Great South Channel ... always made me feel good being able to see the stick ...

[Seaker]

It was interesting to see how few people wrote in on the copy of the email I recd today

Cappy D..spot on again my friend....10 NM offshore...great for forecasting kayak excusions

[jbg108]

What bottom structure at the old BB kept the fish there?

The Bottom seems like gravel with alot of those nasty "Figs". Plenty of Herring to jig but I havn't done well on Cod the few times I've jigged. I'm not sure there's anything too special about that particular spot because the bite seems to move 20 miles north or south of the BB depending on the year.

[twofinbluna]

Its too bad they moved this buoy, IMO. Much rather see them moving buoys out, not in. If you put me in charge I would move every one of these buoys out at least 10-15 miles. Buoys that are within sight of land are pretty useless as far as I am concerned.

Amazing with the amount of people that use these buoys for getting weather observations that they do not have enough money to run the system the right way. They do not seem to admit it, but a big reason for this has to be putting the buoy further north and closer to shore will help cut the costs of servicing it. Each year we see less buoys, and now we are seeing them relocate the few buoys we have.

Amarshall the buoys themselves have nothing to do with holding bait. The areas SE of Cape Cod had herring both because the herring were moving in and out of the Gulf of Maine through there, and there are also spawning areas/beds in that region. (That was back before the pair trawlers crushed the herring and ruined that whole tuna bite, though.)

[Spreader]

Its too bad they moved this buoy, IMO. Much rather see them moving buoys out, not in. If you put me in charge I would move every one of these buoys out at least 10-15 miles. Buoys that are within sight of land are pretty useless as far as I am concerned.

Amazing with the amount of people that use these buoys for getting weather observations that they do not have enough money to run the system the right way. They do not seem to admit it, but a big reason for this has to be putting the buoy further north and closer to shore will help cut the costs of servicing it. Each year we see less buoys, and now we are seeing them relocate the few buoys we have.

Amarshall the buoys themselves have nothing to do with holding bait. The areas SE of Cape Cod had herring both because the herring were moving in and out of the Gulf of Maine through there, and there are also spawning areas/beds in that region. (That was back before the pair trawlers crushed the herring and ruined that whole tuna bite, though.)

Those buoys might hold more than you think. Not a huge amount but they do offer a very small amount of structure that might hold bait. The buoys in Hawaii hold serious bait but they have ropes coming off every few meters from the bottom up so the bait fish can congregate (not like ours). This obviously attracts the larger fish. Too bad we don’t have that out here, although I can only imagine the zoo it would cause around the buoys…………..

[LadyB]

Nice to see our governemt hard at work screwing things up once again. Moving this buoy 10 miles from shore is as useless as tits on a bull. I would really like to understand the reasoning behind that decision.

I dont think this area holds bait any longer regardless of the BB being a FAD or not. The truth of the matter is pair trawling has ruined the fall fishery on Cape Cod. Getting rid of the buoy just makes it that much easier for them to rape that area with these insane fishing methods.

If you look at the amount of herring that they have recently taken from GB it is not to hard to figure out that the tuna fishing on GB will end up the same way. The pair trawlers have been running along the HL for weeks cleaning up all the herring coming over the line from Canada. We wonder why there are no herring at the BB.

I realize that this thread is about moving the BB buoy but Chris mentioned the trawlers and it got me going!