Hi.
Here's our problem if we put the name on them. We have only so many buoys (about 16 to cover 13 wrecks). If we lose the one on the Barnum, it may get moved to the Cedarville because that is more popular than the Barnum or attrition may bring us down to less buoys than we need. A decision then has to be made as to what wreck gets one. If we were NOAA, we would have acess to as many buoys as we need. We don't. But for the gift of these, we'd be back to jugs, balls and anything else we rummage up. Also, when we start out in the am to mark them, we have gotten on the Lake Michigan side of the Bridge only to find the water too rough but we can still go to the Huron. If we only have buoys labeled for the Ward and McBrier, we cannot put them on the Cedarville. It is not practical to put 10 or so buoys and varying lengths of line on the boat. So we waste a day and go home. I hope you understand, we all agree that labeling would be good (and it has been tried). It just has too many practical limitations given available funding (none).
There really should not be much confusion about the locations (except perhaps the Cedarville bow/stern if only one buoy and maybe the Ward) because of modern GPS. However, that means you need to have good numbers and some publications have limitations. Feltner numbers are derived from LORAN numbers and the translation loses something. Similarly, some popular books have bad numbers, sometimes because they just repeat the Feltner or other compromised source.
The association has a booklet with accurate numbers it has gathered by sitting directly over its buoys. With drift, they could be off a few feet but they certainly should distinguish the Barnum from the Cedarville. It is distributed by it or the MUPC at most Midwest regional shows.
If you want the booklet, contact the St Ig Chamber of Commerce or PM me and I will send it to you (assuming I can handle the requests). If anyone wants it, I also have a spreadsheet in Excel listing and comparing all the numbers collected by the Association, used by Straits Scuba, Abyss Charters and cited in most publications (Feltner, Kohl, et al). By comparing the numbers you get a pretty good idea as to what is accurate and what is not. Be cautious of the numbers in the MUPC booklet, they are mostly wrong as to the Straits (we are working to fix that).
Hope this helps explain why some things are done the way they are.
Here's our problem if we put the name on them. We have only so many buoys (about 16 to cover 13 wrecks). If we lose the one on the Barnum, it may get moved to the Cedarville because that is more popular than the Barnum or attrition may bring us down to less buoys than we need. A decision then has to be made as to what wreck gets one. If we were NOAA, we would have acess to as many buoys as we need. We don't. But for the gift of these, we'd be back to jugs, balls and anything else we rummage up. Also, when we start out in the am to mark them, we have gotten on the Lake Michigan side of the Bridge only to find the water too rough but we can still go to the Huron. If we only have buoys labeled for the Ward and McBrier, we cannot put them on the Cedarville. It is not practical to put 10 or so buoys and varying lengths of line on the boat. So we waste a day and go home. I hope you understand, we all agree that labeling would be good (and it has been tried). It just has too many practical limitations given available funding (none).
There really should not be much confusion about the locations (except perhaps the Cedarville bow/stern if only one buoy and maybe the Ward) because of modern GPS. However, that means you need to have good numbers and some publications have limitations. Feltner numbers are derived from LORAN numbers and the translation loses something. Similarly, some popular books have bad numbers, sometimes because they just repeat the Feltner or other compromised source.
The association has a booklet with accurate numbers it has gathered by sitting directly over its buoys. With drift, they could be off a few feet but they certainly should distinguish the Barnum from the Cedarville. It is distributed by it or the MUPC at most Midwest regional shows.
If you want the booklet, contact the St Ig Chamber of Commerce or PM me and I will send it to you (assuming I can handle the requests). If anyone wants it, I also have a spreadsheet in Excel listing and comparing all the numbers collected by the Association, used by Straits Scuba, Abyss Charters and cited in most publications (Feltner, Kohl, et al). By comparing the numbers you get a pretty good idea as to what is accurate and what is not. Be cautious of the numbers in the MUPC booklet, they are mostly wrong as to the Straits (we are working to fix that).
Hope this helps explain why some things are done the way they are.
