In early December, Freeboard and its parent company, LimnoTech, retrieved the final buoys of the season as part of its Great Lakes buoy program. Overall, Freeboard maintains a network of 30 buoys in partnership with its customers that cover portions of Lake Michigan, Huron, and Erie. The buoys provide near-real-time data for public utilities, researchers, boaters, and the general public.
Over the course of the year, the buoys collected 23 million data points, 15,000 video clips, and were viewed by more than 100,000 unique users on their data. Freeboard.tech platform. Freeboard’s support of this operational buoy network is unique, and, outside of NOAA, it is the largest network of buoys operating in the Great Lakes region.
Greg Cutrell, Application Scientist at Freeboard, manages the growing fleet of buoys. Greg notes that this year was one of the longest buoy seasons, but was accompanied by minimal downtime in real-time data. Warm weather lasted well into November, helping extend the buoy season into early December.
Water levels are also now four feet lower than their 2020 highs, causing shallow water at boat launches that affects larger boats and how buoys are retrieved. It is also noticeable that sensors and mooring hardware near the lake’s bottom are also interacting more than designed.
With the buoys back in the office, work will begin repairing, upgrading, and performing routine maintenance on the buoys and sensors to ensure a reliable 2026 season. The buoys often start going back onto the lake as early as March, so it is important to begin winter work right away.
Freeboard Technology and LimnoTech have been making custom buoys for over a decade. If you’re interested in a quote for a buoy, please reach out to us:
Support – Freeboard Technology.
