See Our Great Lakes Observing System Wind, Water, Weather-Sensing Buoy Transmitting Data from State Fair Pool

Contacts:

• NYS Parks Bureau of Marine Services: Ro Woodard, P: 518.408.1028
• New York Sea Grant: Dave White, E: dgw9@cornell.edu, P: 315.312.3042
• US Coast Guard Auxiliary: Gene Little, P: 607.345.0597
• Great Lakes Research Consortium: Dr. Greg Boyer, SUNY ESF, P: 315.470.6825
• NYSG/GLRC Publicist Kara Lynn Dunn, E: karalynn@gisco.net, P: 315.465.7578

U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliaryman Gene Little demonstrates the Safe ‘n Sight decals that make kayak paddles more visible. Photo: Brian P. Whattam


Syracuse, NY, August 30, 2016 - New York Sea Grant brings ashore a boating and paddle clean and safe exhibit at the 2016 Great New York State Fair, which continues through Monday, September 5th. You can find 'The Water is Great in New York State' in the mini State Park on the NYS Fairgrounds in Syracuse, NY.

Check out some of our photos taken over the first several days at the event and learn more about NYSG's efforts to help boaters and families in attendance explore both the historic and high-tech in "The Water is Great in New York State." See "In Photos: New York Sea Grant Paddles Ashore at 2016 Great New York State Fair" for more.

Also at the Fair: A buoy, on loan from the Great Lakes Research Consortium, is in the permanent reflecting pool and transmitting real-time data on air and water temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation level to a read-out screen in NYSG's exhibit tent.

Similar transmitting buoys are deployed as part of the Great Lakes Observing System in New York on Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and selected inland lakes. More info on the buoy at www.esf.edu/glrc/buoys.

The exhibit also includes a 7-foot round boat dating to the 1970s; an inflatable paddleboard; kayak; a display of different types of life jackets, even one for the family dog; Clean, Drain, Dry invasive species management information; and the child-sized U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary mascot Coastie.

The Water is Great in New York State: Boat and Paddle Clean and Safe Exhibit is a collaborative by the New York State Parks Bureau of Marine Services, New York Sea Grant, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, and Great Lakes Research Consortium.


New York Sea Grant Coastal Recreation and Tourism Specialist Dave White offers life jacket and water safety programs through the Discover Clean and Safe Boating that has educated more than 650,000 boaters since 2008. He is seen here on a paddleboard with a throwable flotation cushion, an inflatable life vest, and Safe ‘n Sight decals on the paddle. Photo: Brian P. Whattam

On YouTube: Setting Up for the Fair, Promoting Safe 'N Sight Decals for Low-Sitting Boats, Canoes



As reported by Time Warner Cable, paddleboard enthusiasts, kayakers and canoers are invited to visit NYSG's exhibit at this year's Fair to receive free "Safe ‘n Sight" decals and one "If Found" decal for kayaks or canoes.

Safe ‘n Sight is a new New York State Parks Bureau of Marine Services educational outreach that encourages paddlers to place shiny reflective decals on their paddles to increase the visibility of their boats that sit close to the water surface.

"So many paddles are black and you're already low profile in the water so if you're already in a little bit of a chop a boat can't see you," says New York Sea Grant Coastal Recreation and Tourism Specialist Dave White. "So by having these, when you're hitting your paddle, and you're going back and forth when it comes up out of the water it reflects the sun. So they're going to see something, they're going to realize there is something in the water, they need to slow down, take action to make sure they're not going to conflict with you and your activities."



As seen in the video above, NYSG Dave White stopped by Watertown's WWNY-TV 7 News This Morning studios on August 24th, a day before the Fair began its week-and-a-half-long run, to talk with its newscasters about how our coastal research and education program was gearing up for the annual event.

For more on the Great New York State Fair visit nysfair.ny.gov.



More Info: The CNY News Stations

Since April 2006, NYSG Dave White has been bringing Sea Grant's "message" to the morning masses at WWNY TV 7, a Fox affiliate in downtown Watertown, during one of the highest rated TV blocks in the "wake-up hours," the 6:30-7 am stretch. Sea Grant's 'five minutes of fame' - which potentially reaches around 10,000 viewers in New York's Jefferson and Northern Oswego Counties - has featured topics over the years such as boating safety, aquatic invasive species, diving in search of sunken wrecks, the dune and Salmon River stewards program, shoreline land issues, tourism, and marine safety.  

Time Warner Cable News (TWCN) - part of a network of twelve 24-hour local news channels owned and operated by Time Warner Cable nationwide - began cablecasting as News 10 Now on November 7, 2003. Operating from its headquarters building in downtown Syracuse, TWCN has a huge coverage area, a 15,000+ square mile stretch of Upstate New York. To cover this large area, TWCN provides two separate program feeds - one to Central/Northern NY and another to the Southern Tier - and reaches some 600,000 subscribers across 25 counties. More at centralny.twcnews.com.

More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, is one of 33 university-based programs under the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NSGCP engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting scientific research, education, training and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources. Through its statewide network of integrated services, NYSG has been promoting coastal vitality, environmental sustainability, and citizen awareness about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources since 1971.

New York Sea Grant maintains Great Lakes offices at SUNY Buffalo, the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark and at SUNY Oswego. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Manhattan, in the Hudson Valley through Cooperative Extension in Kingston and at Brooklyn College. 

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG also offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/coastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published several times a year.