2015 Drifter Tracks

resolving transport pathways through New England's continental shelf waters and beyond

updated every two hours

See a GoogleMap of just this month's tracks.
See leaflet animation of all tracks.
See the latest quicker gif animation of tracks.
Download drifter construction manuals and lesson plans
Find out how to get involved with the project
See frequently asked questions
Predict where a drifter (deployed off New England) will go
To see this month's tracks overlaid on other fields (sst, models, etc), go to the MARACOOS site and click on "Drifter" layer.
See drifters and unmanned sailboats documented at NERACOOS
Read a description of the drifters themselves and how to use them.
Access the historical drifter data.
Blog about students deploying drifters with our MATE colleagues
Document a drifter finding
Read about drifters in the news
Get information on a related unmanned sailboat project
Plots of this year's tracks are linked in the table below.
Get raw statistics.
Check on your satellite fix use.
Follow us on Facebook
Drifter tracks from other years:
2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014

To get PYTHON processing routines, email james.manning@noaa.gov for the latest versions.

To see information on individual clusters, click the links in the following chronological table

Institution (data)	Deployer (report/blog)	Date Deployed (animation)	Dropsite (forecast)	#units	Science (googleearth)	Status (googlemap)	Type of Unit (photo)	Fate (photo)
Educational Passages	Baldwin	02 Dec 2012	Gulf Stream	3	educational	underway	boats under sail	deployed Dec 1st, 2012 off N. Carolina by Joe Robillard; one found by a small boat fishermen near Guernsey Island (off the NW corner of France) on Feb 16th, 2014 and was redeployed in the Bay of Biscay in Jan 2015 but came ashore in France 10 days later, one got stuck in what is apparently a "garbage patch" SW of the Azores for nearly a year, one did a gyre loop back to SC after a few months.
Educational Passages	Baldwin	08 Nov 2013	North Atlantic	9	educational	underway	boats under sail	two deployed off N. Carolina by Joe Robillard, two deployed from the Canaries by PLOCAN, and five deployed by New England offshore Lobstermen Todd Ellis, Bob Colbert, and Bro Cote. One landed in Portugal and one in Spain in mid-November 2014. One of the Canaries-launched units, "Glenna", crossed to Brazil in two months!
Truro Central School	OLeary	28 Oct 2014	Off Cape Cod	1	education	done	Irina surface drifter	retained in Great South Channel for weeks, eventually entrained in the shelf-slope front jet to MAB, then the Gulf Stream, until it started failing mid-February beyond the seamounts
Educational Passages	Baldwin	late 2014	multiple places	7	educational	underway	boat under sail	one made a soft landing on a sandy beach in Ireland after four months at sea and brought into a classroom, another made a hard landing in the Orkney Islands of Northern Scotland and has not been heard from since, ...
Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services	Dusek/Standridge	03 Dec 2014	Chesapeake Bay	1	model validation	done	Irina surface drifter	oscillated off the eastern shore for a few days, headed out into the Gulf Stream and then a cold core ring, until battery probably died in Feb 2015
Southern Maine Community College	Long/Tarbox	04 Dec 2014	Casco Bay	1	education	done	Eddie surface drifter	quickly moved south into Mass Bay, Georges Bank, and eventually all the way past the Grand Banks before it died in early May 2015
Jacksonville Univ	Stalker	06 Feb 2015	off Florida	3	river plume	done	surface drifters	"Crystal" sank, "BigBoy" went ashore after 1-2 days, while "Wilson" traveled thousands of kilometers out into the Atlantic
South Shore Natural Science Center	Galuzzo	05 Mar, 21 May, 11 June, 28 July 2015	Mass Bay	5	education	done	all-wood surface drifter in March and two aluminum and 1 bamboo in May, more aluminum in June and July	all wood exited the bay in less than a week and evidently went down in a storm on Nantucket Shoals (18 March), Plymouth ( alum & bamboo(ESN 996055) and Hull (alum) drifters deployed 21 May headed out to sea, Weymouth (alum) deployed off Bill D's boat went to Marblehead in 6 days and redeployed in Plymouth Harbor on 28 July and died on Georges Bank months later (for more, see blog)
University of Central Florida	Mansfield	16 Mar 2015	off Brazil	1	turtles	done	bucket?	Landed on a remote sandy beach hundreds of kilometers to the south a week later.
Cape Fear Community College	Degan	30 Mar, 21 Apr, and 16 Jun 2015	Gulf Stream	3	Marine Tech	underway	unmanned sailboat	one quit after a week, one landed on Hatteras after a month where the USCG responded to report of a "capsized boat on the beach" and laughed when they found, to their surprize, the miniboat which got redeployed on 16 June and ...
Florida State University	Balwada	22 Mar 2015	Gulf of Mexico	3	Marine Sci	done	drifters?	short multi-hour deployments within Apalachicola Bay
Swampscot High	Wilbur/Ratley	17 Apr, 29 May, 22 Dec 2015	Mass Bay	6	education	done	Irina and Eddie surface drifters	first pair (April) came aground in a few days, the second pair (May) ended in several days with one being recovered from the water by a Hingham fisherman and one landing on a Nahant beach, and a third deployment (150420705&6 Dec) was deployed fishermen, Paul Garcelone, 1.5 miles south of Marblehead on 22 December but, for unknown reasons, they failed to report
Suffolk Univ	Stehlin	17 Apr 2015	Mass Bay	1	engineering experiment	done	drogued drifter	slow start but made it around the Cape and on to Nantucket Shoals in mid-May, died late July off NJ
Scottish Gov't	Hughes/Berx	05 May 2015	Northern Scotland	8	HF Radar validation	done	4x4 mast surface drifters	a couple failed after several hours in the water but other six headed east to come ashore on the Shetland Islands
Educational Passages	Baldwin	2015	multiple places	7	educational	underway	boat under sail	includes the "Bon Voyage" trip ending in France in late November 2015
Eastern Maine Skippers	Guenther et al	14 May, 2 July, 29 July, 3 Aug 2015	Maine Coast	5	high school science	done	Irina surface drifters	workshop-built drifters to deployed by Narraguagus High(stuck in Jordan's Basin), Vinalhaven High, Deer Island High (Johnson Boyse's F/V JackieO)LAPCOD (off Winter Harbor Whale Watch Boat picked up days later and redeployed offshore) ; Jonesport unit never reported
Grays Reef Marine Sanctuary	Peterson	18 May 2015	Georgia	2	river outflow/dye study	done	bamboo cassie surface drifters	headed to the Gray Reef Sanctuary and then stopped reporting GPS
GOMI	Lauber/Trimper/Balkus/Terry	03 Jun 2015	off Merrimack River	6	education	done	Irina surface drifters	student deployed!
UNE	Schotte	15 Jun 2015	off Saco River	1	education	done	student designs	best selected of many; was deployed after testing many with students on board; died in mid-Oct beyond Georges Bank
Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services	Dusek/Standridge	19 Jun 2014	Alaska	3	model validation	done	Irina surface drifters	two recovered while underway 1-2 days in and the 3rd came ashore on east side of Dundas Bay
Univ of Maryland	Xia	30 Jun 2014	Lake Michigan	6	Dispersion	done	Irina surface drifters	a few failed, a few came ashore after a week, and a few skirted the coast for a month before also coming aground on the eastern shore
Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services	Dusek/Standridge	5 Jul 2014	Alaska	2	model validation	done	Irina surface drifters	one ashore on a mid-sound island after a two days and one exited the sound and came ashore four days later south of the mouth where it was recovered by Steve's salmon-pen-tendering brother one
GOMI	Terry/Hollaron	03 Jul 2015	Bay of Fundy	2	education	done	Irina surface drifters	student deployed! One ashore for awhile on North Head of Grand Manan 22 July and later on White Head Island (never recovered) while the other one ended up on Heron Island east of Isle Au Haut in late August 2015
OceanExplorationTrust	Beckendorf/Garson	19 Jul 2015	California	1	education	done	Irina surface drifters	student deployed!
Tabor Academy/NOAA	Bill, Randall and Anderson	20 Jul 2015	Buzzards Bay	3	instrument tests	done	Irina surface drifters, Tabor surface, and Tim drogue	incoming Freshmen deployed off the Academy's Tabor Boy vessel including new "Tim" play tunnel drogue but the two surface units came ashore on Nashawena the next day (both eventually recovered by the Tabor Boy) while the drogued drifter was recovered drogueless on the south side of Long Island, NY on 21 August by Peter Daniel, a biology professor at Hofstra University, who tracks trout
University of Georgia	Casteleo	22 Jul 2015	Gulf of Mexico	3	w/gliders	done	experimental floatie drifters	two stopped reporting after a few days and the third a few weeks later
Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services	Dusek/Standridge	20 Jul 2014	Alaska	3	model validation	done	Irina surface drifters	all recover a few days later
Center for Student Coastal Research	Buckley	5, 25 Aug and 31 Oct 2015	Mass Bay	6	marine debris	underway	surface drifters	Deployed by Paul Adams and students
OceanExplorationTrust	Garson	08 Aug 2015	California	4	education	done	Irina surface & Colin Drogues drifters	drogue#2 didn't survive a few hours but the other drogue and the two surface units did fine until the drogue washed up on San Nicolas Island and one of the surface on a San Diego Beach a week or so later
VIMS	Santos	12 Aug 2015	Chesapeake	2	turtles	done	buckets	prep for wooden turtle study with pole ballast to be deployed eventually...headed out the river mouth in the 5 hour test deploymentYork River and recovered
Hurricane Island	Anderson and Page	23 Aug 2015	off Southern Maine	1	education	done	surface drifter	Deployed by Rozalia Project's R/V American Promise but apparently failed soon after
Grays Reef Marine Sanctuary	Peterson	1 Sep 2015	Georgia	1	river outflow/dye study	done	bamboo cassie surface drifter	headed south along the coast and was picked up by a fishermen 10 miles off Sebastian Inlet mid-coast Florida in 11 October
UNH Center and Marine Biology	Goldstein/Morrissey	16 Sep 2015	Great Bay	1	lobsters	done	buckets	often short tracks
Great Lake Environmental Research Lab	Ruberg	24 Sep 2015	Lakes Huron and Michigan	3	exchange	done	Eddie 2x4 drifters	two came ashore of south side of Lake Huron between Mackinaw and Cheboygan on 9/30 and the other went ashore on the northeast corner of Beaver Island in Lake Michigan in early October.
South Shore Natural Science Center/Battelle	Galuzzo	6,8,25,27,31 Oct 2015	Mass Bay	5	education	done	surface drifters	Weymouth (by Bill Doherty's lobster boat), Hull_High (by Eric Meschino's); Hanover_Middle_School, Rockland, and Plymouth_Middle_School
Long Beach Island School	McBride	07 Oct 2015	off New Jersey	1	education	underway	Irina surface drifter	deployed by Pete Dolan, a Barnegat Light fisherman, took off in the Gulf Stream and ...
Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctury/GOMI/Nauset & Monomoy High schools	MacManus/Prescott	07, 21, and 22 Oct 2015	Cape Cod Bay	~10	turtles & education	done	Irina surface drifters	Nauset & Monomoy Schools; first unit went to N Truro beach, some of 2nd cluster went to Barnstable Harbor (recovered by Greg Hamm) & Dennis mud flats (Shawney recovered one and Jim Mills photographed another before it went in Quivett Creek); in general, the 3 batches showed them grounding at a variety of places from Barnstable to P-town
GOMI	Terry et al	Oct 2015 - Jan 2016	Gulf of Maine	~13	turtles,cod, & education	underway	Irina surface drifters	RVCS units deployed with students on-board circled around for a few weeks and landed on Isle of Shoals (recovered by Star Island Conf Center folks) and Hampton NH rocks (recovered by JiM's students). There was not much left to them when they were recovered. RVCS redeployed both in late Nov (one died in GSC on Dec 20 and one came ashore on New Years Eve busted at Race Point to be recovered by a beachwalker & Jesse from PCCS). Harborlights Montesorri (working with Salem Sound Coastwatch and MassDMF) deployed one (150420707) in Mass Bay cod spawning grounds on 18 December; Kennebunk High worked with GMRI to deploy another in early January in Ipswich Bay
First Presbyterian Day School	Lewis	12 Oct 2015	Gulf of Mexico	1	elementary education	done	Irina surface drifter	assembled by 5th graders, deployed by Dept. of Natural Resources, coming ashore a few weeks later
Savannah State	Hintz	16 Oct 2015	off S Carolina	2	flood water education	done	Cassie bamboo surface drifters	Assembled by Savannah State University undergraduate and graduate Oceanographic Instrumentation classes (MSCI 4572 & MSCI 6572) to study the fate and transport of historic SC floodwaters entering the coastal ocean; headed down to Florida, out to the gulf stream, and died a few days after New Years near New England Seamounts
Univ. of Connecticut	Whitney/Jia	23 Oct 2015	Ct River Mouth	5	flood water education	done	buckets	Oceanography class activity; one came ashore at Old Dock Marina after a few hours, was redeployed at Avery Py and came ashore again Groton Long Pt. The other got out into the Sound, oscillated for several days, and came up on a beach south of New London on 29 Oct. A pair was released on 30 Oct with Waterford High but ended up on Fishers Island soon after.
Southern Maine Community College	Long/Tarbox	17 Nov and Dec 2 2015	Casco Bay	6	education	underway	Eddie and tall Lauren surface drifters	1346667 Lauren;1346664 Lauren;1346988 Eddie;1344335 Eddie;1346696 Lauren;1347019 Eddie;1346688 Eddie
Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctury/GOMI/MiddlesexCommCollege	MacManus/Moffat	late Nov 2015	Cape Cod Bay	1	turtles & education	done	Irina surface drifters	one MCC unit transitting for a few weeks and died
NOAA/NESDIS	Ondrusek	12 Dec 2015	off S Carolina	1	Education	done	Irina surface drifter	short demo recovered after 8 hours
Educational Passages	Baldwin	2016	multiple places	10?	educational	underway	boat under sail	includes the "Crimson Voyager" deployed in late 2015; "Lightning Bolt" and "SS DCA Eagle" late winter 2016;
NOAA Marine Debris	Cape May Fishermen	27 Feb 2016	Shelf edge	1	marine debris	underway	Irina surface drifter	First deployed off Cape May, NJ by F/V Karen Elizabeth on 27 Feb
NOAA Marine Debris	Essex MA Tech	17 Mar 2016	off Gloucester	1	marine debris	underway	Irina surface drifter	Deployed by fishermen, Jim Ford
Jacksonville Univ/Bolles School/Foundation Academy	Stalker/Murphy/Paris	16 Mar 2016	off Florida	5	river plume	underway	surface drifters	Larger Bolles' School drifter tracked differently than standard size units
University of Georgia	Casteleo	29 Mar 2016	off Georgia	1	Altamaha river outfall	underway	revised experimental drifters
South Shore Natural Science Center	Galuzzo	Jun 2016?	Mass Bay	2	education	planned	surface drifters	Plymouth_Middle_School redeployment in February and Inly School's first in June

Note: Most units are prepared by marine science students. The majority are standard "surface drifters" marking only the top 1-meter of the water column, but some units, as in the case of EP boats, track the wind and wave at the surface and some have subsurface drogues typically centered at 10m-15m below the surface. For details, call 508-495-2211 or email james.manning@noaa.gov.