Students to Deploy NOAA Global Ocean Buoy Off Maui

The buoy will be deployed from the Trilogy Excursions vessel, which will depart from Lahaina Harbor for the mission on Monday. Lahaina Harbor, file photo by Wendy Osher.

By Wendy Osher

Students will help to deploy a Global Ocean Buoy off of Maui next week.

The NOAA drifter will be used to collect climate and environmental data, contributing a vital role to the tracking of hurricanes, ocean pollutants, species migration and marine debris.

The buoy will be deployed from the Trilogy Excursions vessel, which will depart from Lahaina Harbor for the mission on Monday.

Students who won NOAA’s Earth Day contest will participate in the event, along with Ka‘au Abraham, Joseph Carrier and Ed Lyman, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hawaiian Island Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.