Ocean Buoy Live Exploration: Cleaning & Servicing a CO2 Buoy

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Have you ever wondered how to move and service a full-sized scientific ocean buoy? Or what critters and seaweed cling to its underside? Watch live online as we lift our one-ton, 20-foot-tall carbon dioxide (CO2) buoy out of the water and explore its scientific instruments and the organisms that have colonized the buoy bottom.

In this live online event, we’ll provide a close-up view of servicing and maintaining an ocean buoy, getting up close and personal with the animals and plants that have colonized its underside. You’ll have a virtual front-row seat as we lift the buoy out with a crane, check its scientific instruments, and catalog the biological community of native and invasive species that drift in with the tides of San Francisco Bay to make the buoy their temporary home.

On loan to us from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the CO2 buoy has been anchored between Piers 15 and 17 since April 2013, collecting data on water temperature, salinity, and CO2 levels in the atmosphere and in San Francisco Bay. Every year, we pull it out of the water to calibrate and replace the sensors and to clean off corrosion and the growth of marine organisms.

We miss you! We look forward to welcoming people in person to the museum again in the future, but we hope you’ll tune into the live stream We’ll answer as many questions as we can on air or online.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.