By Bruce Burdett

When Little Compton residents were asked recently what they love about their town, one person replied, “Hearing the 2A bell buoy in the fog.”

That sweet sound could soon become history.

The Sakonnet River bell buoy “2A” is on a list of a dozen Rhode Island aids to navigation that the US Coast Guard proposes removing (or in a few harbor buoy cases changing from steel to foam).

Also on the list is another big Sakonnet buoy, a Warren channel buoy and a buoy off Gould Island in the bay’s East Passage (not the Tiverton Gould Island).

Timothy Chase, officer in charge of the Coast Guard’s Aids to Navigation station in Bristol, described the local buoys slated for removal and stressed that decisions are not yet final and that public input is encouraged.

• Sakonnet River bell buoy 2A

While acknowledging that some people have a particular affection for bell buoys, there is reason to question the effectiveness of this red buoy out from the entrance to Sakonnet Harbor, he said. There are other aids, including one on the harbor breakwater itself, and old “2A may be “redundant.”

“Sound signals,” he added, “are either your friend or your enemy.” His office, for instance, gets frequent feedback when buoy fog horns sound on perfectly clear days.

• Sakonnet River Entrance Lighted Whistle Buoy “SR”

Sitting west of Sakonnet Point smack in the middle of the entrance to the Sakonnet River, this red and white offshore buoy is a big one at 26 feet long.

It, too, is deemed redundant — “there’s a red buoy not far away” — and, like all of the big offshore buoys, “is very difficult to maintain — labor intensive,” Chief Chase said.

Like others, it has been there “almost forever” but navigation technology may have rendered it less necessary than in the past.

The Times tried to contact Little Compton fisherman and town council member Gary Mataronas Monday. He couldn’t immediately reply as he was on his boat in “wild weather.” Later he left a reply message saying he was unaware of proposed buoy removals. He added that two buoys that “absolutely have to stay” are the two listed above. Locals, he added, call the whistle buoy, “the hooter.”

• Warren River Junction Buoy

A small “5th Class” steel red-green-red buoy floats at the junction of the Warren, Palmer and Barrington rivers roughly between American Tourister (Warren) and Tyler Point (Barrington).

Chief Chase said that the buoy serves little purpose since there is minimal boat traffic heading up past it on the Warren side — most boats turn up toward Barrington Harbor instead.

• Gould Island Southwest Shoal Buoy #2

This red buoy sits just off the south end of Gould Island in the bay’s East Passage (out from the Navy Base), very close to a shore mounted navigational tower rendering it, in the Coast Guard’s opinion, “redundant.”

As for Tiverton’s Gould Island, “we actually did some buoy work there not long ago,” moving a green buoy from the west side of that island to the east side which is where the actual navigational channel runs. That buoy had previously marked a rock hazard — it is now marked by a black-red-black isolated danger buoy.

Feedback welcome

“We carefully evaluated these reasonably limited measures that will maintain or improve navigation safety while increasing the efficiency and cost effectiveness of our overall (aids to navigation) program,” the Coast Guard said in a bulletin released Monday. “Our review suggests that the 12 aids identified in this proposal consume Coast Guard (and taxpayer) resources that exceed any navigation safety benefit delivered to the boating public.”

Chief Chase added that Rhode Island has an especially large concentration of Coast Guard-maintained buoys —425 including the dozen up that may be eliminated or changed.

The Coast Guard says it welcomes feedback. Comments may be sent to Edward G. LeBlanc at 401-435-2351, or Edward.G.LeBlanc@uscg.mil by June 30.

“We will carefully consider all comments submitted and adjust our proposal if warranted. Only then will we begin to make on-the-water changes to aids to navigation, and in no case would any of these changes take place before November 1, 2016,” the bulletin stated.