Where the Buoys Are
By Dave Kellam, Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership
July 25, 2007
In 1960, Connie Francis sang the title track of the film “Where
the Boys Are” as she dreamed of finding her future husband during
spring break. She thought finding “The One” would unlock
the secrets of life. Later in the film, she realized it’s not that
simple, because true understanding rarely comes from a single source.
That is the philosophy of several UNH programs that are using automated
buoys to collect environmental data from a variety of locations with
the goal of better understanding life on earth.
One of these programs is the Coastal Ocean Observing Center. The Center’s
researchers maintain a buoy in the middle of Great Bay that records environmental
data both above and below the water. Every half hour, reports of water
temperature, salinity, wind speed, and five other parameters are electronically
relayed to the Center’s website at www.cooa.unh.edu.
In 2006, the Center deployed the Gulf of Maine's first ocean greenhouse
gas measurement buoy about three miles northeast of the Isles of Shoals.
Every two hours the buoy automatically records carbon dioxide levels
in both the water and air, which indicates if the ocean is absorbing
or emitting the greenhouse gas. The most recent data from can be seen
The UNH Atlantic Marine Aquaculture Center deploys a monitoring buoy
about one mile south of White Island that is jointly maintained with
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This buoy collects near-continuous
environmental data at the offshore aquaculture site, such as wave amplitude,
temperature, salinity, turbidity, and fluorescence at different depths.
Finally, a group of water quality monitoring buoys is operated by the
UNH Marine Program. Four of the buoys, located in Great Bay, the Oyster
River, Lamprey River, and Squamscott River are part of the Great Bay
National Estuarine research reserve’s system-wide monitoring program.
Two additional buoys, operated with support from the New Hampshire Estuaries
Project (NHEP), are maintained at the mouth of the Piscataqua River in
Portsmouth Harbor and seasonally in the Salmon Falls River.
These six buoys monitor a suite of water quality parameters such as
conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and temperature at 30-minute
intervals. Collectively, the data provide managers a comprehensive picture
of water quality throughout the Great Bay estuary system. Data are included
in the NHEP’s indicator reports and triennial State of the Estuaries
reports that track trends and overall environmental conditions of the
All of the information collected by automated buoys placed strategically
in the region greatly enhances the ability of scientists to detect trends
in the dynamic ocean and estuary environments. By gathering data from
many vantage points, there is hope that a few more of life’s secrets
will be revealed.