The second DMB was launched at 1020 on December 27 and was believed to be 

 spotted on December 31 at approximately noon after traveling 21.5 nautical 

 miles in a direction of 135° (0.22 knots). The third DMB was deployed in a 

 large pancake on December 31 at 1340, and the NCAA drifting buoy was dropped 

 in this same pancake at 1630. Unfortunately, a good position indication was 

 not obtained because of instrument problems at 1630, but the buoy position at 

 2217 is known. 



Sheets of plywood (4 feet x 8 feet) were deployed from USCG cutters into 

 the oil slick on four occasions, as indicated in Table VII-8. Only one of 

 these drifters was ever relocated. 



Drift cards were dropped from aircraft on several occasions for two 

 purposes. The most important one was to serve as an early warning system 

 when east or southeast winds threatened to blow the oil ashore. Each of 

 these releases consisted of 1000 cards, and their positions and times are 

 noted in Table VII-9 and Figure 2-4. Fortunately, the east winds were not 

 sustained, and no drift cards have been recovered from shore. The second 

 reason for using drift cards was to mark particular areas of oil for visual 

 reference during transport studies. These deployments were generally made in 

 batches of 25 cards. However, 100 were deployed on December 26 on top of the 

 large "pancake 1," and positively identified this pancake when it was re- 

 spotted on December 27. On the NCAA C-130 flight on January 12, 1977, drift 

 cards were observed in oil at 38° 45'N, from 65 to 66°W, confirming that this 

 oil was from the Argo Merchant. 



In order to help predict the course of the oil slick, it was decided 

 during the evening of December 28 to try and deploy a trackable buoy into a 

 pancake of oil as soon as possible. A NOAA drifting buoy that communicates 

 its position through the Nimbus-F satellite was chosen to be the candidate 

 buoy. The NOAA Data Buoy Office, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, responded to 

 the request and arranged for two buoys to be delivered to Hyannis, Massachu- 

 setts. One buoy (ID #343) was borrowed from Nova University and was delivered 

 on December 30. A backup buoy (ID #567) was delivered from the manufacturer 

 in Los Angeles, California, on January 1, 1977. This buoy was never used. 

 Buoy 343 was dropped by the SOR Team from a USCG H-3 helicopter at 1630 on 

 December 31, 1976. It was placed in the center of a large pancake of oil (75 

 feet X 35 feet) in the hope that it would stay with the oil and generate 

 positions independent of weather both to guide aircraft reconnaissance flights 

 and to actually track the oil. There were some deployment problems as the 

 quick release would not activate and the hoist cable had to be cut at the 

 winch. Only visual observations were made at time of deployment because it 

 was dark and only the hover flood lights were available to illuminate the oil 

 pancake. Subsequently, the buoy, the launch sling, and the cable were ob- 

 served in the oil, as well as lumber and other flotsam. For the next 8 days, 

 reports on positions were received at Hyannis via special arrangement from 

 Nimbus-F control at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This tracking of the 

 oil was highly successful, in spite of intervening bad weather, which pro- 

 hibited flights. On January 2, 3, 12, and 13, the oil was relocated and 

 mapped using buoy positions as an aid. Table VII-10 in Appendix VII lists 

 the positions and velocities of the buoy as determined by Nimbus-F up to the 

 time of this report. Figure 2-5 shows the track of the buoy. 



26 



