Biological station retrieves missing equipment from lake

BLUE BAY — Last week, FLBS personnel retrieved our Flathead Lake research buoys for repairs, maintenance and calibration.

Originally deployed in the summer of 2011, weather and water data from the buoys have been extremely valuable scientifically and very popular with the local community — in particular with anglers and recreational boaters.

All components of both buoy systems were successfully retrieved, but it required a day and a half of “fishing” with an improvised grappling hook in nearly 350 feet of water to snag and reel in the water quality profiler from the bottom of our Midlake Deep site off Yellow Bay point.

We know that people have come to depend upon the information from these buoys and so we are doing everything we can to get them back into the lake. We hope to get them up and running again this summer, however the feasibility and timeline for redeployment depends upon costs estimates.

Thanks to all of you for the interest and positive feedback we have received regarding the buoy data over the last two and a half years. We will keep you posted.