Manatee County buoy ends up in Poldhu Cove, United Kingdom

MANATEE -- A Manatee County marker buoy has made its way to the United Kingdom.

Jessica Collins, who lives in Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, in Southwest England, discovered the buoy this week.

"Not quite as exciting as a space shuttle but found this buoy on Poldhu Cove, Cornwall, which has come all the way from Manatee County, Florida," Collins, 34, posted on her Facebook page along with pictures of the buoy.

When Collins found the buoy covered in stalked goose barnacles on Poldhu Cove, she said in an email she didn't know where it came from at first.

"The writing was very faded but you could make out Manatee and Artificial so I googled them along with Florida, as I know manatees live off the coast of Florida," Collins emailed.

Collins traveled to Florida when she was 11, she said, but "it took eight hours to fly, not eight years riding on the Gulf stream."

After finding the buoy, Collins, who is interested in marine debris and often does beach cleans, sent an email to Manatee County staff. They responded, saying it was a marker buoy for an artificial reef most likely from one of the offshore sites in the Gulf of Mexico.

Manatee County began using this type of buoy around 2005 and discontinued using them around 2008. So "it is quite likely that the buoy has been at sea for the last 7-10 years before it finally washed up on your shore," the county email response was to Collins.

Collins was amazed it was out at sea for up to 10 years before hitting land or breaking up.

"It goes to show that our oceans, although massive, are not so massive that everything gets lost forever," Collins said. "Also, it is a reminder, though not in this case, that our oceans should not be used as a dumping ground, and we need to take great care with what goes into our seas. Plastic pollution does so much damage to marine life and even enters the human food chain when fish mistakenly eat micro plastic."

The buoy has not been removed yet. They are waiting for the National Trust to help remove it since "it is really heavy," Collins said.

Alan Lai Hipp, county environmental program manager, said this is the farthest he's ever heard a Manatee County buoy travel. Buoys are subject to the constant action of waves and current.

"We had a buoy go to Texas that I got a call about," Lai Hipp said.

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter@Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Manatee County buoy ends up in Poldhu Cove, United Kingdom ."