NOAA Staff Have Been Busy Installing Mooring Buoys for Public Use Across America

June 6, 2025

Mooring buoys are a vital part of the infrastructure in many national marine sanctuaries. These buoys make it safer and easier for boaters, divers, paddlers, and snorkelers to access sanctuary sites—while protecting sensitive resources like coral reefs, seagrass beds, and historic shipwrecks from anchor damage. Across the sanctuary system, NOAA staff and partners deploy, maintain, and replace mooring buoys to help ensure safe and sustainable recreation.

Here's a snapshot of recent work from some of the buoy teams across the country:

Offshore of Texas in Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, the team got started in February by deploying two mooring buoys at East Flower Garden Bank, as well as redeploying the sanctuary's sofar buoy named 'Bob', which provides the public with near real-time data on wind and wave conditions. On May 21, staff and support divers from Moody Gardens headed out aboard the M/V Fling. Together, they deployed three mooring buoys along long-term monitoring sites at Stetson Bank—popular dive spots for recreational visitors. The team also exchanged a passive acoustic recorder (SoundTrap) and a temperature logger mounted to a submerged railroad wheel used for water quality instrumentation. On the second day, they inspected mooring buoys at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's artificial reef site, Kraken, as part of the sanctuary's partnership with the Ships to Reefs program.

Vessel anchored on the ocean surface near a mooring buoy and a floating marker. — New buoy deployed at a site on Stetson Bank marked with a surface marker buoy, M/V *Fling* in the background. Photo: Captain Andy Lewis/Texas Caribbean Charters

Two scuba divers securing a buoy to the ocean floor using metal hooks and ropes. — Staff replacing old moorings or installing new moorings at sites at East Flower Garden Bank. Photo: Jenny Vander Pluym

In Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the team was busy on May 22 conducting buoy maintenance, such as attaching new downlines, at North Patch NE2, Dry Rocks NN2, Carysfort Reef C3, Carysfort South CS1, and The Elbow E8. According to Maritime Heritage Coordinator Brenda Altmeier, "Our dive on C3 was a special treat—a naturally occurring staghorn coral colony, which was so beautiful to see!" This small team maintains more than 800 buoys (mooring, boundary, spar, etc.) throughout 4,539 square miles of sanctuary waters. The public can find information about each of the mooring buoys and their locations using Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's mooring buoy locator tool.

The sanctuary will expand its mooring system with eight anchors at Sombrero Key Reef, six anchors at Coffins Patch, and four anchors at Looe Key thanks to a grant from the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

Scuba diver installing or inspecting a mooring anchor on the ocean floor. — Photo: Brenda Altmeier/NOAA

Up north in the Great Lakes, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary maintains seasonal mooring buoys at 52 historic shipwrecks. "There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes," said Nick Myers, captain for Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. "Over the winter, we clean and prep the buoys, mend lines, and plan operations. By late April, we're already deploying the first buoys—it's a busy time of year with lots of moving parts."

Over the past three weeks, Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA divers, and groups of Port Washington and Manitowoc divers installed the sanctuary's 16 surface mooring buoys for the 2025 season. These buoys help boaters and divers safely access shipwrecks while protecting the region's remarkable underwater cultural resources. Most recently, the team installed mooring buoys at Norman, Kyle Spangler, Ogarita, Cornelia B. Windiate, and L.M. Mason.

A man stands beside several large buoys, on a grassy area next to a body of water. A white boat is docked in the background. — Some of the mooring buoys to be deployed in Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Photo: Steph Gandulla/NOAA

A person sits on the back of a boat next to large buoys. — Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Russ Green prepares to deploy mooring buoys for the 2025 season. Photo: NOAA

Next, the sanctuary is preparing to assist with the deployment of three data buoys off the coast near Two Rivers, Sheboygan, and Port Washington. In partnership with Michigan Technological University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences, and NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, these buoys collect real-time wind, wave, and temperature data in Lake Michigan. The data is publicly available through the Great Lakes Observing System at seagull.glos.org.

Get Into Your Sanctuary!

Summer is almost here! Are you ready to get out on the water and Get Into Your Sanctuary? If you plan on making use of the many free mooring buoys across the National Marine Sanctuary System, be sure that you're familiar with how to use a mooring buoy!

Rachel Plunkett is the content manager and senior writer/editor at NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries