Key West harbor pilot Capt. Bob McGuire accesses information from the Sand Key Lighthouse monitoring station via computer numerous times a day. However, that monitoring station and six others throughout the Florida Keys and South Florida could be shut down as soon as September.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to cut the $175,000 annual funding for seven automated oceanographic and meteorological monitoring stations spanning from the Keys to Florida Bay to Key Biscayne. The program, run through the Florida Institute of Oceanography, has the support of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, but NOAA administrators have threatened the continuation of the program.

Without an immediate change in policy, the institute will be forced to dismantle the monitoring stations beginning in September and end the program by the end of the year, said John Ogden, a program director.

The stations provide real-time weather data that harbor pilots use to make informed decisions about how to guide cruise ships and other large commercial vessels in and out of the Key West port, McGuire said. The Sand Key station is just a few miles to the west of the main ship channel entrance.

"There is no other source for us to gather wind conditions at the reef before we bring ships through the reef," McGuire said of the program, technically called the Sustained Ecological Research Related to the Management of the Florida Keys Seascape, SEAKEYS for short. "The SEAKEYS meteorological monitoring devices are an important asset to the maritime community in the Florida Keys, and for commercial shipping interests transiting the Florida Straits. ... When cold fronts are approaching during the winter months, the harbor pilots also closely monitor the data being produced by SEAKEYS at the Pulaski Shoal station, located near the Dry Tortugas."

The harbor pilots are not the only large-vessel operators who rely on the data from SEAKEYS buoys. The captains of large Coast Guard cutters also acquire information from those buoys, Coast Guard spokesman Matthew Meinhold said.

The SEAKEYS is also widely used by local commercial and sport fishermen and the operators of large snorkel charter boats, McGuire said.

"NOAA recognizes the information provided by SEAKEYS as a tremendous public service as well as a resource for scientific research," acting sanctuary Superintendent Sean Morton said. "The SEAKEYS data is a crucial component of the Integrated Ocean Observing System. With the increasing threats to the coral reef ecosystem from climate change and ocean acidification, this information is critical to management decisions in the Florida Keys."

SEAKEYS was established in 1991 and serves the important function of tracking marine environmental conditions along the Florida Keys and Florida Bay. Since construction, the stations have been continuously upgraded to pace changing technologies and needs. The stations have been used as a test bed for new technology, Ogden said.

Lobbying efforts have already begun to reinstate the funding, and to have it done as soon as possible. McGuire plans to send e-mails about the issue to his fellow harbor pilots and members of the Key West chapter of the Propeller Club. The Key Largo Chamber of Commerce issued a statement last week, stating it supports the continued funding of the program. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen sent a letter to Jane Lubchenco, the head of NOAA, asking to continue the funding.

"The information produced by SEAKEYS meteorological monitoring devices is frequently utilized by local businesses that make their living in our southeastern U.S. waters," Ros-Lehtinen wrote. "SEAKEYS monitoring stations are also used by researchers and sanctuary personnel to monitor coral bleaching events.

"Clearly, the elimination of such a scientifically valuable and highly used program would pose a serious detriment to my district, and runs contrary to your agency's mission of promoting safe navigation, supporting coastal communities, and sustaining marine ecosystems."

tohara@keysnews.com