A Vision for the Trail

Modern Markers for the Water Trail

NOAA has deployed three "smart buoys" that transmit real-time weather, water-quality, and wave and current data and interpret information about their locations along the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Today, many constituencies, including boaters, educators, and maritime interests, access this information via web site (www.buoybay.org), phone (877-BUOYBAY), wireless browsers, and automated web-based applications. New educational curricula, which use data from CBIBS buoys to teach a variety of subjects, have been developed for teachers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

FY08 funds will enable NOAA to continue operation of the first three CBIBS buoys and deploy two additional buoys. NOAA will also develop additional interpretive content related to the John Smith trail; explore installing sensors on the buoys to track additional items that have been requested by users, such as sea level, nutrients, and bottom dissolved oxygen; and expand the educational capabilities of the system.

Sustained funding is needed to keep the CBIBS system operational, expand the reach and capabilities of the system's interpretive and educational content, and enable the buoys to fully support the John Smith trail and people who visit it. A dependable operational system is critical to meeting the needs and expectations of a growing user community, including decision makers and resource managers who work to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

Photo credit: (buoy) Patrick Bloodgood, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District.