Listening session addresses boaters’ navigational aid concerns

LONG BEACH—Representatives from three major marine-related agencies presented individual outlooks on the future of navigational aids and its effects on recreational boaters during a special listening session at the Hyatt Regency’s Shoreline Ballroom, June 17. Part of a nationwide campaign to gain a better grasp of the boating public’s input on the current state of both physical and virtual electronically produced aids to navigation (ATONs), the gathering, titled “Future of Navigation: 21st Century Waterways,” presented officials from the. Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with a platform to both listen and be heard. Mike VanHouten of the Coast Guard’s Aid to Navigation branch and Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Salas each addressed the audience on uses of ATONS and responded to comments about the San Diego Approach Lighted Whistle buoy (SD-1). The buoy, which sunk to the ocean floor March 14, has yet to be replaced and cannot be retrieved until September at the earliest. “Originally when we were examining the seacoast aids around California, the San Diego buoy was a buoy that we were wondering how exactly it was used by the boating public,” Salas said. “When it went missing, we immediately tried to get...