Trump regime tells Rhode Island boaters "do your own research"
By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current
“It’s a tremendous aid to navigation,” Mataronas, a Little Compton town councilor, said in an interview.
Which is why he and other Rhode Island mariners are concerned over a proposal from the U.S. Coast Guard to remove more than three dozen navigational buoys from the state’s waterways, including the Sakonnet River buoy.
“It’s actually a safety risk if they take that out,” Mataronas said. “A lot of these buoys put along the coastline were put there for a reason.”
The Coast Guard is seeking public comment on the proposal to discontinue 350 buoys in the waters between New York and Maine in an effort to modernize the navigation aids — most of which were deployed before modern GPS systems. That includes 38 buoys in the waters from Westerly to Sakonnet Point.
Rhode Island is home to roughly 400 buoys maintained by the Coast Guard.
Proposed buoy changes are intended to “support the navigational needs of the 21st century,” deliver efficient and economical service to manage vessel transit at an acceptable level of risk, according to the Coast Guard’s announcement.
“We recognize that discontinuation of buoys rightfully raises concerns from a variety of waterway users and thus we are also committed to enabling mariner input in the process,” Petty Officer 3rd Class Rajesh Harrilal, a Coast Guard spokesperson, said in an email to Rhode Island Current. “In fact, it is required.”
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) has similarly encouraged all commercial and recreational boaters and harbormasters to write to the Coast Guard by its mid-June deadline for public comment.
“The Coast Guard’s goal should be to ensure safety through an effective, efficient, and resilient navigation system,” Reed said in a statement. “Rhode Islanders know these waters best, and their views should guide Coast Guard decision-making.”
Sail Newport Executive Director Brad Read wrote to the Coast Guard May 8 that buoys placed in Narragansett Bay are “crucial for safe maritime operations in the region.”
“Without these visual aids to navigation, there will be loss of property, there will be environmental damage from groundings, there will be personal injuries, and there will potentially be fatalities from taking out some of these very important beacons,” Read said in an interview.
He likened the Coast Guard’s buoy elimination proposal to taking exit signs off highways.
Most modern boats are equipped with electronic navigation and GPS, but a significant number of vessels in Narragansett Bay still lack that technology, Read said. That includes the 180-boat fleet at the Newport-based sailing education center.
“We want their heads out of the boat looking for those aids to navigation, looking for traffic that’s coming, making good decisions based on what they see with their eyes, not what they see on a screen,” Read said.
North Kingstown Harbormaster James Broccoli told Rhode Island Current that his office is still looking into the Coast Guard’s proposal, but is firmly against the removal of a buoy off Wickford Cove.
“When you’re approaching Wickford Cove, there’s a lot of lights in front of you from land,” he said. “That bell is really a good marker.”
In Little Compton, Mataronas said the Sakonnet River buoy also helps guide students learning to sail at the Sakonnet Yacht Club. Mataronas said removing the marker could lead boats into fish traps set up along the coastline between the breakwater and the beach during the summer.
“If you get over one of those, it can net your propeller and stop you dead in your tracks,” he said.
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Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
