Deployment information
Most drifting buoys are deployed by commercial ships and research vessels. The DBCP is always looking for more ships to be part of this global effort. It has an ongoing need to deploy buoys in order to maintain the network which involves creating new opportunities and ensuring that existing deployment opportunities are shared among buoy operators, as well as with other programs such as Argo and OceanSITES.
Opportunities
OceanOPS deployment opportunities
POGO SeaDataNet Research Cruise Database
Even Dispersion
The buoy network is, in reality, not evenly dispersed across the whole ocean, due to difficulties in deploying buoys in very remote areas (especially the southern ocean) and because the buoys follow ocean currents they can often drift out of certain zones quickly or clump together in other convergence zones.
This is a major challenge for the DBCP.
The countries participating in the DBCP have been working for many years to collectively build up the resources necessary to maintain 1250 buoys operationally. The voluntary service of research vessels and commercial freighters, tankers, and other ships transiting the global oceans is an essential component of the system as they deploy the buoys needed to re-seed and maintain the network.
Deployment and Recovery Techniques
The DBCP has compiled information about the best techniques to deploy and retrieve buoys: