National Park Service advances plans to relocate Chequamegon Point Light Tower
(Apostle Islands National Lakeshore News Release) BAYFIELD, Wis. — Apostle Islands National Lakeshore has awarded a...
Apostle Islands Wave Watch buoys pulled for the 2024 season – With your help, they’ll be back in 2025
Education | News | Our Work | Wave Watch
September 20, 2024
What a wonderful summer on the water it was, for thousands of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore visitors. They sailed. They paddled. They cruised from island to island. They fished. And they safely explored the 720 square miles of Lake Superior within park boundaries, many with help from the Wave Watch buoys. These yellow, solar-powered buoys provided real-time information about wave conditions and surface water temperature, 24 hours a day all summer long.
On September 17th, a team including the National Park Service, the University of Wisconsin Coastal Resilience and Suitability Lab and Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore retrieved the buoys from five locations in the park. The process involved locating each buoy, using a boat hook to grab the line connecting the solar-powered yellow buoy to additional red buoys, a high-visibilty flag, and 70 pounds of anchor weight then hauling everything into the park service boat. The team used a new system developed by UW Research Scientist Josh Anderson to make retrieving the heavy anchor weights from the lake bottom safer and easier.
Josh Anderson, Steve Ballou and Karl Carlson work to retrieve the buoys – Jon Okerstrom photo
Peyton Martinson at the helm – Jeff Rennicke photo
Steve Ballou uses a large inflated fender buoy to lift anchor weights off the bottom – Jeff Rennicke photo
Buoy retrieval team in action – Jon Okerstrom photo
For the 2024 season, the buoys were deployed at five locations in the park: at Long Island near the entrance to Chequamegon Bay, near the mainland sea caves in Mawikwe Bay, in the channel between Little Sand Bay and Sand Island, on the north end of Devils Island near the sea caves there and south of the tombolo on Stockton Island. UW research scientist Josh Anderson said the high-traffic, popular locations that were chosen before the season started worked well. He said, “The buoys held up and the data was live. We added some marker identification buoys which helped the boaters see and avoid collisions and haven’t received any complaints. Overall, the season was a success. ”
Park visitors accessed the real-time data from two places: on the Friends of the Apostle Islands website and on the WISC-Watch website, hosted by the University of Wisconsin. Boaters visited those pages over 30,000 times during the summer season. That breaks down to several hundred page views every day. Website data indicates that interest in the buoy near the mainland sea caves was strongest; interest in the four other buoy locations was also strong and roughly equal. The buoys delivered their data via satellite with a system uptime of 99.3% for the season.
Sailboat and Wave Watch buoy off of Devils Island – Jeff Renicke photo
Jeff Rennicke with a Wave Watch buoy – Jon Okerstrom photo
Friends Executive Director Jeff Rennicke says the website metrics help to prove the value of the program. “When people can see wave conditions before they ever hit the water, they can make safe, smart decisions about whether to go or to wait for calmer conditions. If they’re on the water, they can check conditions on their phone and adjust course if necessary. We know a lot of people are using Wave Watch and the QR Code clings and stickers we’ve given away to make it really easy.”
Lucas Westcott, Director of Communications and Education for the park says, “Last year Apostle Islands had more than 10,000 boat based visitors. With Lake Superior’s cold waters and fast changing weather, visitor safety is a top priority. On a daily basis Wave Watch helps boaters see how the marine forecast is playing out in real time. It provides a way to see the big picture of conditions in the islands. That helps boaters on the lake, and on land, make good choices about how to best to enjoy the park.”
Friends has committed to funding Wave Watch for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Rennicke says, “A successful summer in the Apostle Islands always begins with safety. It was a very safe season. Friends is really pleased with how the boating community has embraced Wave Watch.” During the off-season, Anderson says the team will gather user feedback as part of evaluating the location choices for 2025. He says some good ideas for refining the mooring system will be pursued. The team plans to deploy the buoys again as soon as conditions permit next spring.
Friends would like to thank the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, the University of Wisconsin and other project partners and supporters for making this important boater safety initiative happen. For more information on Wave Watch and how you can get involved, click here.
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