Well, a brief update on the AquaBuOY. It is no longer bobbing in the waves off the Oregon coast. In fact, it is well underneath them.

the 72-foot-tall buoy began taking on water late last week and sank just one day before engineers were going to remove it.

And, well, it is interesting that, it seems, every renewable energy approach out there has its version of NIMBYism. In this case, the crabbers:

Al Pazar, chairman of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, said the mishap validates the concerns of the fishing industry.

"We've got a big chunk of iron laying at the bottom of the ocean which will probably gobble up a bunch of crab gear," he said. "It's just another place for things to collect and make a big mess."

There's no word on why, exactly, this happened. But it looks like it's not as big of a disaster as the crabbers would have us believe. The buoy uses no lubrication, so there's no associated chemical spill, and it's still anchored to the sea floor, and will be recovered in spring.

Comments (9)

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Silly AquBuOY
written by Dani , November 02, 2007

OH man... I was really rooting for this thing!

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written by Shawn , November 02, 2007

I won't make any comments about the crabby crabbers. What about all the drifting plastic and fishing nets, sunken ships, etc.?

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written by Anon , November 03, 2007

There are so many potentially Earth-saving technologies just waiting to be further developed and deployed, but some jackass industry/individual/interest group always stands in the way. Clean energy is more important than harvesting crabs. Sorry. Sea life should be left alone anyway.

Crabby???
written by Kyllein F. MacKellerann , November 03, 2007

What puzzles me is that it's the Crabbers (how appropriate) who are griping. Crabs are harvested by means of traps, not nets. Perhaps there is more to it, but crab pots would be minimally impacted. It's the trawlers that will have the troubles, not the crabbies.

Just a thought...
written by David , November 04, 2007

I think that the oil guys saw that this project in a bigger scale could actually have a big impact on their profits, so they paid someone to destroy the AquaBuOY and come out with a lame excuse that would make the project sound unviable.

sealife
written by Anders , November 05, 2007

Actually, often iron-junk is actually good for wildlife. The concrete foundations of windturbines outside of the swedish coast doubles as artificial reefs. And the areas surronding the windturbines are off-limits for humans, another protection for fish. http://www.offshorewindenergy....ironment#6

Artificial reefs are built by junk.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060818-subway-reef.html

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written by Paolo , November 05, 2007

Doesn't exactly compare to Chernobyl... sorry had to say it.

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written by Bob Wallace , November 05, 2007

Perhaps it's time for some organization to start working on getting crabbers and fishermen (fisherpeople) to start thinking more like farmers and less like harvesters.

People who sell seafood need to start putting some effort into growing their product. They are over-harvesting what grows naturally.

Create some "nurseries" where their livestock can safely breed and grow to usable size.

What better way than to set aside a very small portion of the ocean for structures such as wave and wind generators? You can clearly mark their location and they provide additional underwater surfaces for organisms to attach.

And rogue fisherfolks aren't going to drag a seine through a buoy field.

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written by j , November 12, 2007

Damn you ninja sharks, DAMN YOU!

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