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Critical weather station restored on Matinicus Rock

Washington, DC, March 9, 2010

Temporary station operational, tightening a dangerous information gap for local mariners.


Congresswoman Chellie Pingree announced today that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has restored a critical weather station on Matinicus Rock at the head of Penobscot Bay. With the permanent station down since last February, NOAA has installed a temporary one that started rebroadcasting data on Saturday, March 6. 

“It is very important to make sure this remote weather station remains operational,” said Pingree.  “For years, fishermen and other Penobscot Bay mariners have depended on its readings to see if the seas are safe for travel.  It has been dangerous to have them sailing blind for so long, so I appreciate that NOAA has acted to remedy the situation.” 
 
Located on a lighthouse on Matinicus Rock, the Coastal Marine Automated Network (C-MAN) station posts real-time weather and wind data online.  Local fishermen, ferry captains and other mariners regularly check the data before heading out to determine the conditions at the entrance of Penobscot Bay and surrounding coastline.

The weather station has been not functioning for over a year, leaving a dangerous gap in information made worse by damage to another C-MAN station on Mount Desert Rock and buoys in the area that provide data on ocean currents.  
 
Alerted to the situation by local fishermen, Pingree wrote a letter to NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco urging the agency to restore the station as quickly as possible.   In January, Lubchenco responded that the agency would work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Coast Guard to build a temporary station. 

The new station became operational over the weekend and broadcasts the same information the permanent station had provided. You can see the readings from the station at: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=mism1 

NOAA plans to re-establish the permanent station once USFWS makes repairs to the lighthouse it’s located on, sometime next winter (the uninhabited island, which provides important habitat to migrating seabirds, is closed during the summer).