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A large orange buoy that broke loose from waters off Makapuu has been found by the vessel Rapture floating inside the reef on the south side of French Frigate Shoals. Buoy drifts from
NW isles to French
Frigate ShoalsStar-Bulletin staff
The privately operated Rapture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship Townsend Cromwell are surveying ecological resources of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
Divers inspecting the buoy found it was a fish aggregating device that was dragging a long mooring chain along the coral reef.
The device was one of a string of aggregating devices placed at various sites in the islands by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to attract fish for fishermen.
State aquatic resources officials estimated the buoy discovered by the Rapture had escaped sometime between 1995 and 1999 and was moved by currents to French Frigate Shoals.
Athline Clark of the Department of Land and Natural Resources said a different buoy recently was found in Midway, and three others broke off and were found in the early 1980s in the northwestern islands.
Although DLNR officials would like to recover the buoy, the divers said it may be difficult because of its size, weight and location within the reef.
If it is determined during a marine debris cleanup in late October that it can be retrieved, it will be brought back to Honolulu on a Coast Guard cutter.