Thank You Coast Guards!

This storm season has been unusually intense this year, with multiple major storm tracks including a bomb cyclone generating a historical pressure drop and 13 meter waves. This has been particularly hard on our in-situ assets off the coast. We are indebted to the US and Canadian Coast Guards and the Makah Tribe for their roles in helping us recover valuable assets affected by storm action. The CRITFC/CMOP Plume buoy moved a couple km in November, and then another 1 km during the bomb cyclone. The US Coast Guard volunteered to recover the buoy in order to remove it from its new potentially hazardous location close to a shipping channel. The Coast Guard Cutter Elm successfully recovered the buoy mid-December, and it is now home at the new CMOP Field Office in Astoria, Oregon.

Farther north, the UW/APL Cha'ba buoy withstood the bomb cyclone but broke loose afterwards. Fortunately it drifted into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where the Neah Bay Coast Guard helped tow it closer to shore. The Makah Tribe's F/V Alyeska then plucked it out of the water with all of its equipment intact.

Lastly, one of the two Quileute Tribe's Backyard Buoys spotter buoys went adrift during the bomb cyclone and wandered for a while. Fortunately, the Canadian Coast Guard Cutter Sir Wilfred Grenfel was able to recover the buoy off the coast of Vancouver Island and it has been retrieved.

Photo Credit: CRITFC