Editor’s note: Little Compton Town Council member Gary Mataronas sent this letter to the Coast Guard earlier this month, and asked that we publish it here as the federal agency considers a plan to decommission more than 350 buoys from Maine to New York, including Sakonnet Point’s 2A. The public has until Friday, June 13 to comment on the proposal (see last week’s Sakonnet Times). To comment, send an e-mail to the USCG at AD01-SMB-DPWPubliccomments@uscg.mil.

I have been an offshore lobsterman for 53 years and have homeported in Tiverton, RI and Sakonnet, RI and I have owned and operated three different offshore lobster boats in that time.

I am writing to respectfully request you to keep Buoy 2A in the middle of the Sakonnet River west of Sakonnet Harbor. I use this buoy as a waypoint when traveling down the Sakonnet River from Tiverton and it is especially helpful when it is foggy or raining. I also fish out of Sakonnet Harbor and use Buoy 2A as a guide to stay out of the Sakonnet breakwater fish trap. When I’m heading back in from 2-13 miles out, I will set Buoy 2A as a waypoint to get home and then head east from the buoy to find the end of the Sakonnet Breakwater.

We have a young sailing fleet, along with other sailors, that utilize Buoy 2A as part of their navigational training and it is an integral part of learning navigation and that training.

There are a vast number of recreational fishermen moored at Sakonnet Harbor and many more launch from our launching ramp. Since this is the only buoy adjacent to Sakonnet Harbor it is used exclusively as a navigation aid to leave and return to the harbor. The only other buoy is the Nun Buoy at Old Bull Ledge off Taylors Lane in Little Compton. If the “Middle Buoy” as the fishermen and locals call it, is removed, I fear some less than adequate boaters may mistake the Old Bull Buoy as Bouy 2A and run aground on the ledge.

It will be a great disservice and put all boaters at risk, especially in the fog, if Buoy 2A were to be removed.

I sincerely hope you will leave Buoy 2A in place as the only aid to navigation in the immediate area of Sakonnet Point in Little Compton.

Captain Gary S. Mataronas

Little Compton