Off station / missing buoy
A buoy that is not in its charted position — dragged, damaged, missing or removed.
Buoys mark channels, dangers and turning points, and a buoy in the wrong place is worse than none. Storms drag them, ships hit them, and ice carries them away. "OFF STATION" means the buoy is not where the chart shows; "MISSING" or "DESTROYED" means it is gone.
Temporary replacements are often a different type of buoy or show a different light; the warning then gives the substitute's characteristic.
What the archive shows
1,257 messages in this archive use “Off station / missing buoy”, the earliest issued 1990-07-29 and the latest 2026-08-06. 12 of them are in force in the latest lists we collected. A hazard reported again and again counts once per message.
The largest yearly count is 2023, with 91 messages. Collection is incomplete between 2024-05 and 2026-08-17, so 2024, 2025 and 2026 are not comparable with fully collected years.
Debris accounts for 738 of 1,257 recorded messages (59%), the largest warning type group in this selection.
Located messages that use it fall in 52 sea areas; the most frequent are North Atlantic Ocean (207), North Pacific Ocean (143) and North Sea (134).
Messages that use it are issued most often in January (157 across all years) and least often in August (73).
By warning series: HYDROLANT 588, HYDROPAC 354, NAVAREA IV 193 and NAVAREA XII 101, and 4 more.
Messages using it, by year of issue
By month of issue, all years
Where it appears · 52 sea areas
In force now · 12
- UKWZ 476/26 · Nav aids · North Sea2026-08-06 · in force
THAMES. SANDETTIE WEST BUOY 51-15.1N 001-54.5E MISSING.
Sandettie west buoy 51-15.1N 001-54.5E missing → - HYDROPAC 2200/26 · Nav aids · Arabian Sea2026-08-01 · in force
ARABIAN SEA. PAKISTAN. FAIRWAY BUOY 24-43.14N 066-55.86E MISSING.
Fairway buoy 24-43.14N 066-55.86E missing → - HYDROPAC 1796/26 · Nav aids · Singapore Strait2026-06-21 · in force
SINGAPORE STRAIT. MALAYSIA. BATU BERHANTI ISOLATED DANGER LIGHT BUOY 01-11.76N 103-52.51E TEMPORARILY REMOVED.
Batu berhanti isolated danger light buoy 01-11.76N 103-52.51E temporarily removed → - NAVAREA XI 273/26 · Nav aids · Singapore Strait2026-06-21 · in force
SINGAPORE STRAIT. BATU BERHANTI ISOLATED DANGER MARKS LIGHT BUOY, 01-11.76N 103-52.51E, TEMPORARILY REMOVED.
Batu berhanti isolated danger marks light buoy, 01-11.76N 103-52.51E, temporarily removed → - NAVAREA IV 545/26 · Nav aids · Caribbean Sea2026-06-06 · in force
LM BUOY 09-25.99N 079-49.78W MISSING.
Lm buoy 09-25.99N 079-49.78W missing → - HYDROPAC 974/26 · Nav aids · South Pacific Ocean2026-03-31 · in force
SOUTH PACIFIC. DART 4G BUOY 35-45.40S 075-17.25W MISSING.
Dart 4G buoy 35-45.40S 075-17.25W missing →
How it reads in recent messages
- HYDROPAC 683/26 · Nav aids · South Pacific Ocean2026-03-08
SOUTH PACIFIC. DNC 07. DART II BUOY 20-41.74S 073-16.23W TEMPORARILY REMOVED.
Dart II buoy 20-41.74S 073-16.23W temporarily removed → - HYDROPAC 465/26 · Nav aids · Tasman Sea2026-02-16
COOK STRAIT. NEW ZEALAND. DNC 06. 1. BARRETT REEF BUOY 41-21.15S 174-50.11E MISSING. 2. CANCEL HYDROPAC 461/26.
Barrett reef buoy 41-21.15S 174-50.11E missing →
Earliest in the archive
- NOAAORR-6753 · Spills · Gulf of Mexico1990-07-29
…towed to Houston. The second barge was damaged and was put aground on a sand island near buoy 58. The third barge was damaged and sunk by the stern. The bow is out of the water and…
Galveston bay barge, buoy 58; galveston bay, tx →
Often in the same message
Related terms
- Unlit / extinguished
- A light, buoy or structure that is not showing its charted light.
- Light characteristic
- The coded description of a light — FL W 10 SEC 8 METERS 8 MILES — giving its rhythm, colour, period, height and range.
- Adrift
- Loose and moving with wind and current — a vessel, container, buoy, log or anything else no longer secured.
Warning types that use it
- Nav aids — Lights extinguished, buoys off station, RACON/NAVTEX outages.
Counts cover the messages in this archive that use the term, recounted 2026-09-24; see coverage for what is collected and since when. Not for navigation — follow official NAVAREA and coastal broadcasts.