Wave buoy deployed in Bering Strait

A wave and weather buoy was deployed July 15 in the Bering Strait about 35 miles west of King Island.

“The goal of the buoy is to assist village residents, National Weather Service forecasters, the U.S. Coast Guard, commercial and recreational ships, and anyone else transiting the region which is known for extreme weather and strong currents,” the Alaska Ocean Observing System said.

AOOS is an Anchorage-based organization with board members drawn from federal and state agencies, academic and research institutions, and private entities including oil company Shell.

The Bering Strait, the gateway between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, has become increasingly busy with ship traffic in recent years.

The buoy streams real-time information on waves, wind, and air and sea surface temperatures on an hourly basis, AOOS said.

“The buoy was a collaboration between multiple partners,” AOOS said, including the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative, the University of Victoria and the Canadian Coast Guard.

—Wesley Loy