The Coast Guard is working to repair numerous lost buoys near False Pass, in anticipation of increased summer vessel traffic in the area.
All navigational aid buoys near False Pass and all but one in Bechevin Bay have gone missing, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, which issued a navigational safety advisory on May 1, warning mariners of lost buoys in the area.
“We have 29 buoys that mark False Pass into Bechevin Bay and into the Bering side, and then also we have eight fixed structures — those are the beacons on the shoreline,” said Chief of Waterways Management with the Coast Guard’s Arctic District, Daniel Davis. “And it was reported that all of those buoys, apparently, are missing.”
The region will soon see an uptick in vessel traffic as boats traveling to the Bristol Bay region pass through on their trek up for the summer salmon season. The region is also home to the Area M commercial salmon fishery which begins in June. Vessel traffic includes smaller gillnet vessels and seiners, as well as larger tender boats that transport goods and fish between harvesters and processing plants.
“My primary concern from the waterways perspective are the tender vessels that tend to be quite a bit larger in terms of their clearance to the bottom, and any obstructions that might be down there,” Davis said.
He said it’s possible that some of the buoys sank or were dragged and could cause dangerous obstructions on the sea floor, especially for deeper-drafting boats.
The buoys are held in place with concrete sinkers that weigh about 6,500 pounds or more, according to Davis. So it takes a lot of force to move them.
David Seris, who also works for the Coast Guard’s Waterways Management, said they’re not certain yet what caused them to go missing.
“We don't know if the buoys parted through their moorings or if some of them sank,” Seris said. “We're not exactly sure what we're going to find until we get there and look.”
According to Meteorologist Michael Lawson with the Alaska Sea Ice Program, False Pass was completely choked in with ice in March, and the Eastern Bering Sea region, from the Pribilof Islands to the Alaska Peninsula, saw some of the worst sea ice in at least 15 years, but likely closer to 30.
“Since 1998, we've documented ice in False Pass seven times,” Lawson said.
Still, Davis said the Coast Guard won’t know for sure if sea ice moved or sank the buoys until the organization can perform some surveying.
“Once we get out there and get a helicopter on scene, we'll try to figure out what's there,” Davis said. “We're pretty confident that we'll get an air survey before operations begin.”
Next, they’ll bring in the Coast Guard Cutter Cypress out of Kodiak.
“They'll go out and do a comprehensive survey visually and with their small boats,” he said.
He said they’ll be relying on help from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to get that work done. NOAA will use a multi-beam sonar to survey the waterway for obstructions.
“To ensure navigation safety for the ship and the buoy tender and also other vessels that are going through that waterway,” he said.
Davis said they’ll begin surveying and then restoring the buoys on May 28.
In the meantime, the Coast Guard has sent out broadcasts and reached out to various organizations notifying mariners of the missing buoys. They will also update the navigational safety information based on feedback from mariners in the area.
