GoMOOS deploys newest weather buoy

PORTLAND – Weather watchers have one more tool at their disposal to get the latest information about ocean conditions along the Maine coast.

The Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System, or GoMOOS, has deployed a new small weather buoy at the mouth of the New Meadows River near Harpswell to take measurements of wind speed, waves, circulation patterns, temperatures, salinity and even fog and sea smoke.

The buoy is the 11th in the network of GoMOOS buoys in the Gulf of Maine used by mariners, scientists, weather forecasters and others to get ocean conditions from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. The newest buoy is the first of its type that aims to record ocean conditions close to shore.

The buoy is mobile and can be easily moved from place to place. It is slated to stay at the New Meadows River site for two years.

“What we envision in the future is a set of these buoys that we can move in and out of bays and estuaries to do some fine-scale measurements of what’s happening in those areas,” said Tom Shyka, chief operating officer for GoMOOS.

GoMOOS is a nonprofit organization that operates buoys that serve as floating research stations, transmitting a wealth of data about ocean conditions. The information is on the Internet, available to researchers, ship captains, fishermen and those who are simply curious.

The newest buoy, “Buoy D,” was placed at the mouth of the New Meadows River in eastern Casco Bay because GoMOOS members said there was a need for buoy data from close to shore. The river is known for having large numbers of menhaden die off in the 1990s; it also has experienced toxic algae blooms that have resulted in shellfish closures.

The new buoy, designed by the GoMOOS buoy program at the University of Maine, is smaller, lighter and less expensive to build and maintain than the other buoys in the network.

The data transmitted by the buoy will be particularly valuable to those who manage the waters in and around the river, such as the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Marine Resources, as well as town officials, Shyka said.