Boating safety volunteers affix a light to a Lake Martin hazard buoy
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Service for Safety STORY BY JOHN THOMPSON
Lake Martin is big, beautiful, clean and potentially dangerous to careless boaters. There are extensive rock formations, huge sandbars and other hazards that could be hidden from the view of a boater who is not familiar with the area. Water levels in Lake Martin fluctuate throughout the year, which makes it more difficult for boaters to determine the exact location and type of the hazard. Running up on a sandbar or striking a rock formation at any speed can be dangerous to boaters and damaging to watercraft. Lake Martin Resource Association, working together with the Marine Police has identified 330 hazardous area locations over the most popular boating areas of Lake Martin. Of these, 90 are installed with blinking solar lights. The lighted buoys usually are installed in heavy traffic areas. With changing water levels and wave action that moves buoys around, it is impossible to place buoys directly over hazards. Additionally, both sand bars and rock formations vary in size, with some being very large. Buoy information material available from LMRA warns boaters to stay at least 100 feet away from hazardous area buoys and to never travel between a buoy and a nearby shoreline or between two buoys near each other. The other type of buoy that is installed and maintained by LMRA volunteers is a No Wake buoy, which means just that: There should be nothing but smooth water trailing behind the boat. There are 125 of these installed over Lake Martin at bridges, marinas, Wind Creek Park and other locations, as determined necessary by the Marine
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Police. More than 450 buoys are managed by a small group of volunteers utilizing one pontoon boat that has been modified for this purpose. It is hard work, and it is very costly to manage. LMRA members fund the program with membership dues and donations. The financial side and the volunteer contributions are both necessary, but the most important part of the program is the safety of Lake Martin boaters. Without the hazardous area buoys marking the danger beneath the surface, Lake Martin would become extremely dangerous. Most boaters are aware of the buoys and respect them by following the 100-foot guideline. Unfortunately, some do not, and herein is the problem. Careless boaters are now destroying buoys at the fastest rate LMRA has ever experienced. When a buoy is hit, it immediately loses its effectiveness. It no longer stands as a sentinel to warn unaware boaters; but instead, it becomes a potential hazard. The LMRA buoy team relies on the boating public to notify them when a buoy is missing. They also check sites when making install runs. There is always a time lapse between collision time and replacement time. Boaters beware: LMRA is committed to making Lake Martin as safe as possible with its buoy program, which has been copied by other lake associations in Alabama, but help is needed from the boating public. Please slow down. Follow the buoy guidelines, and report missing or damaged buoys to lmra@lmra.info.
JULY 2022
