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Apr 11, 2014

Money well-spent: Buoy system deployed in Gulf of Mexico returns value after Galveston oil spill

Workers lower buoy into ocean.

When it comes to state spending and success rates, cost savings, and overall bang-for-your-buck bottom lines, it’s hard to beat Texas A&M University’s TABS buoy system that relays vital information all along Texas’ coastline with the Gulf of Mexico.

With support from the Texas General Land Office, Texas A&M researchers have developed the only buoy system of its kind in the United States and one of the few of its kind in the world.  The Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS) supplies critical data allowing modelers to accurately predict the movement of oil spills and provides other current data that helps protect the 367-mile Texas coastline.

Now in its 20th year of operation, the buoy system operated by researchers at the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG) in the College of Geosciences has proved to be extremely valuable in the fight against oil spill damage.

  • VIDEO: Introducing an automated system for protecting Texas coastlines

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