BFS Deploys Buoys For Summer,

But Flashing Lights Found Lacking

COOPERSTOWN – It means summer isn’t far behind.

Volunteer Divers Pat McCormack, Lee Ferrara, Bjorn Eilertsen, and Sarah Coney deployed no-wake zone buoys (NWZBs) and retrieved the over-winter spar buoys this morning, according to Paul Lord, who oversees the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field State diving team.

All NWZBs are deployed except for the Four Mile Point East and Five Mile Point Buoys, Lord reported.  The Five-Mile Point NWZB is entangled with the BFS monitoring equipment.  A carefully planned dive will be executed to disentangle the two systems once lights are in hand, he said.  The Four-Mile Point East NWZB is also awaiting a light.

The replacement lights on the buoys used to last for 10 years, but now are lasting no more than a year, the diving team leader continued.  “This will be a great cost driver for the NWZB program,” he said.  “We have four of the new lights that are working.  Most of the lights deployed are the old ones.  We cannot expect them to survive the next year.”

Anyone noticing a light that has stopped flashing, contact Lord at the BFS, 547-8778.