SITKA, Alaska – Coast Guard Cutter Maple personnel coordinated with National Data Buoy Center personnel to complete repairs on two southeast Alaska offshore National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather buoys, 46083 and 46085 and are now on station transmitting weather and sea-state data.
Data buoys 46083 and 46085 are are used to measure and transmit air and sea temperatures, wind speed and direction, wave height, direction and period, as well as barometric pressure changes. This information is then be compiled into weather reports and predictions heavily depended upon by commercial, private and military mariners alike.
“Earlier this spring we assisted NOAA with the Cape Edgecumbe weather buoy and now to have two more on station and transmitting makes us all very happy because we know how important this information is to mariners across southeast Alaska and the Pacific Rim,” said Lieutenant Commander Dan Gray, Coast Guard Cutter Maple commanding officer. “The local fishing fleet, recreational fishermen, mariners and surfers alike rely on the data provided by these and many other data buoys in order to make informed decisions on where and when to travel and be safe at sea.”
The information provided assists the National Weather Service in developing weather reports for the Southeastern Gulf of Alaska. NOAA’s National Weather Service and National Data Buoy Center can be accessed online at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ and http://seaboard.ndbc.noaa.gov/
Commissioned on Oct. 19 2001, the Cutter Maple is a 225-foot Juniper-Class buoy tender stationed in Sitka. The Maple is operated by seven officers and a crew of 46 men and women.
