Atlantic Maritime Academy

No person, shall take possession of or make use of for any purpose, or build upon, alter, deface, destroy, move, injure, obstruct by fastening vessels thereto or otherwise, or in any manner whatever impair the usefulness of any aid to navigation established and maintained by the United States. Recently several offshore NOAA data buoys parted their moorings and became adrift due to excessive strain on the mooring.

These navigational data buoys collect valuable on scene weather data for all mariners. These buoys are anchored to the seabed, and some have a watch circle radius of over 1 nautical mile. Once the mooring is parted and the buoy is adrift only certain Coast Guard resources can reset the aid back on its intended station. Coordinating of resources to retrieve the buoy, and place it back on station is time consuming and sometimes take weeks, thus valuable weather information cannot be obtained and relayed to mariners in need of it. Mariners are advised not to interfere with these aids to navigation and report any sightings of vessels tied off to them to the U.S. Coast Guard. Interference with or intentional damage to Aids to Navigation is a misdemeanor and shall be subject to a fine not exceeding the sum of $500 for each offense (33-CFR 70.0l).

LNM 44/07