Saving Seafood

US research buoys are caught in currents of change

September 8, 2026 — A research buoy is something like an ant: A single one might not look like much, but put a bunch together and they can make something truly impressive.

In the water, a buoy becomes part of a larger system. Together, they provide all kinds of functions, from conducting ocean and weather research to helping satellites stay calibrated.

Buoys can handle almost anything the sea throws at them. William Burnett, a meteorologist who has led the National Data Buoy Center since 2022, described them continuing to collect data even after being “hit dead center by hurricanes.” That’s on top of the usual sources of wear-and-tear: rain, ice, barnacles, saltwater.

One of the biggest threats to buoys comes from surprisingly cute sources: seals and sea lions.

“We were noticing that the buoy cables were being chewed through,” Burnett noted in a phone interview.

To get around the problem, the National Data Buoy Center installed cages around the research devices. That’s mostly worked, though smarter animals do find a way to mess with them, even using them like makeshift surfboards.

“If they can find the platform,” Burnett said of these rambunctious animals, “they’ll get on it.”

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

NOAA cuts proposed by Trump could cut jobs in South Mississippi

March 7, 2017 — The agency whose satellite photographs alert Coast residents of approaching hurricanes could see deep budget cuts, putting jobs and programs in South Mississippi in jeopardy.

The Washington Post reports it obtained a four-page budget memo which shows the Trump administration is seeking to cut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget by 17 percent.

Even deeper cuts are proposed for fiscal year 2018, which starts Oct. 1, for NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. It would lose $126 million, or 26 percent of its funds under the current budget. NOAA’s satellite data division would lose $513 million, or 22 percent, the report says.

These programs have staff working at Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, along with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Weather Service, which both face 5 percent cuts.

The National Data Buoy Center, headquartered at Stennis under the National Weather Service, maintains a network of buoys that serve all U.S. coastal states and territories. They are used by the weather service supercomputers to produce computer-generated model forecasts of the atmosphere and climate used by recreational boaters, commercial interests and the U.S. military. The NDBC also is responsible for tsunami stations around the world.

NOAA has been at Stennis since the early 1970s and employs more than 250 federal employees and contractors, according to the NOAA website.

These early numbers frequently change during budget negotiations between the federal agency and the White House, and later between Congress and the administration, the article says. The budget figures cited by the Washington Post are part of the Office of Management and Budget’s “passback” document, and are a key part of the annual budget process during which the administration instructs agencies to draw up detailed budgets for submission to Congress.

NOAA representatives at Stennis declined comment on the budget report.

Many of these cuts are for agencies that study climate change. The budget proposal would eliminate the $73 million Sea Grant program that supports coastal research through 33 university programs, among them the University of Southern Mississippi, Mississippi State, Jackson State and University of Mississippi.

Read the full story at The Sun Herald