The buoy will be placed about 4 nautical miles southwest of Cuttyhunk Island as a joint project of several agencies, including the state Department of Environmental Protection and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The DEP is providing $905,988 to purchase, install and operate the buoy.
The money is coming from the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Trust Fund, which was established following the April 2003 grounding of the tanker barge Bouchard 120 on a bedrock ledge in Buzzards Bay.
The 12-foot rupture in the barge's hull spilled approximately 98,000 gallons of oil into the waters off the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts.
A joint press release from the DEP and NERACOOS, the northeastern component of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, said the new wave sensor buoy will protect mariners and cargo, including fuel oil.
"With more than a billion gallons of petroleum products moving through Buzzards Bay and the Cape Cod Canal every year, this navigational aid will join a vital network that provides mariners with critical environmental and safety information," DEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg said in the press release.
The buoy measures wave height, wave period, wave direction and surface water temperature every 30 minutes, the press release said. The buoy will help improve boat safety because mariners can verify current wave conditions before leaving the dock.
"This additional information will help provide a clear picture of sea conditions to commercial mariners, the recreational boating community, and the many Coast Guard, state and local vessels that conduct vital search-and-rescue efforts within this heavily trafficked area," Capt. Clint Prindle, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard's southeastern New England sector, said in the press release.
Julianna Mullen, spokesperson for NERACOOS, which is a partner in the project, said the buoy is expected to be installed within the next three months.
Scientists from the Woods Hole Group will be in charge of the deployment.
Data from the buoy will be integrated into NERACOOS's buoy network map and added to NOAA's Physical Oceanographic Real Time System, or PORTS, for the Cape Cod area.
The system also includes a buoy in Cape Cod Bay installed in 2016 and an ocean current profiler at the west end of the Cape Cod Canal that was installed in 2019.
Jake Kritzer., executive director of NERACOOS, called Cape Cod PORTS a "model of effective collaboration in support of coastal communities and ocean-dependent industries."
Real-time observations from the new buoy will be available on several websites, including neracoos.org and Cape Cod PORTS page (tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/ports/index.html?port=ca).
©2021 Cape Cod Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
