For over a decade, Buffalo State University’s Great Lakes Center has maintained and operated a real-time monitoring buoy deployed off the coast of Dunkirk, New York, in Lake Erie’s eastern basin. Funded by the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) and with field support from the NYSDEC Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit, the buoy provides data to the local population and stakeholders as well as the larger Seagull database.
Challenges: Public Data Reliance and Filling in Knowledge Gaps
The purpose of the buoy is two-fold:
- Provide weather and wave data to the public in order to inform recreation and fishing operations.
- Contribute data to the multi-agency Seagull database. The Great Lakes Center operates one of only a few buoys in the eastern basin.
Solution: Data Sharing and Collaboration
The NexSens CB-650 is equipped with a wave sensor, Lufft WS502 Weather Station, T-Node temperature string, and YSI EXO2 sonde. The top-side SeaView Systems Wave Sensor records wave height and wave period, and the Lufft WS502 measures air temperature, humidity, pressure, solar radiation, and wind. Additionally, a Garmin GPS GNSS Receiver provides emergency tracking and the current location and orientation of the buoy.
For the general public, the buoy provides critical data that allows recreational and commercial boaters to check the windspeed, wave height, and water temperature out on the Lake to help them make safe boating decisions.
The buoy plays a significant role in filling in knowledge gaps in the eastern basin. While there are a few monitoring stations that share their data with Seagull, the Great Lakes Center buoy is one of the only systems with a temperature string.
Benefit: Real-Time Observations of Seiches in Lake Erie’s Eastern Basin
Additionally, the eastern basin experiences unique weather and water temperature dynamics due to seiches coming from the western part of Lake Erie.
Brian Haas, a field and lab technician at the Center, explains, “You can see some interesting observations looking at the data from the temperature string and the EXO2 during seiche events. You can see all of those changes happening in real time.”
Haas adds, “Charter captains also make use of the temperature string which shows them the different temperatures in the water column and can help them decide what depths to fish at.”
The NYSDEC Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit also relies on the data to inform fieldwork and observe conditions in the fishery.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, the buoy benefits multiple groups, something that Haas emphasizes as being particularly rewarding.
He explains, “[The buoy] provides a useful service to a diverse group of people. It is always rewarding to hear from individuals who use the data from the buoy and are very appreciative of the work we do. Many anglers launch out of Dunkirk and often express how useful the buoy is to them and thank us for continuing to operate it.”
Additionally, the data collected by the buoy goes on to inform a variety of actions on the Lake.
“Sometimes in science, the data is only really being used by researchers, but this buoy is used by everyday people in all sorts of different communities for a variety of reasons. That’s my favorite aspect of it—it, serves as a really important and useful public resource,” adds Haas.
Equipment
The NexSens CB-650 Data Buoy is designed for deployment in lakes, rivers, coastal waters, harbors, estuaries and other freshwater or marine environments.
The YSI EXO represents the next generation of water quality instruments from YSI. The EXO2 sonde includes six sensor ports and a central anti-fouling wiper option.
The Lufft family of multi-parameter weather sensors offer a cost-effective, compact alternative for the acquisition of a variety of measurement parameters on land- and buoy-based weather stations.
The highly accurate GPS 19x HVS position receiver/antenna provides up to 10 Hz update rates for position, velocity and time data.
The NexSens T-Node FR thermistor string provides high precision temperature measurement in an addressable and connectorized assembly.