Coast Guard unit maintains Gulfport Small Boat Harbor

GULFPORT, Miss. - Machinery Technician 3rd Class Jason Bravo, a member of Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team Gulfport, secures an unlighted buoy to the bow of the 26-foot trailerable aids-to-navigation boat in the Gulfport Small Boat Harbor, Nov. 7, 2011. ANT Gulfport is responsible for the maintenance of 300 fixed and five floating aids to navigation. The unit's area of responsibility extends from Pearl River on the west end to Belle Fontaine on the east in Mississippi. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Bill Colclough.

GULFPORT, Miss. - Machinery Technician 1st Class Dave Russell (right), a member of Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team Gulfport, pushes an unlighted buoy due for annual maintenance toward the bow of the 26-foot trailerable aids to navigation boat in the Gulfport Ship Channel , Nov. 7, 2011. ANT Gulfport is responsible for the maintenance of 300 fixed and five floating aids to navigation. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Bill Colclough.

GULFPORT, Miss. - Machinery Technician 1st Class Dave Russell, a member of Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team Gulfport, pushes an unlighted buoy due for annual maintenance toward the bow of the 26-foot trailerable aids-to-navigation boat in the Gulfport Small Boat Harbor, Nov. 7, 2011. ANT Gulfport is responsible for the maintenance of 300 fixed and five floating aids to navigation. The unit's area of responsibility extends from Pearl River on the west end to Belle Fontaine on the east in Mississippi. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Bill Colclough.

GULFPORT, Miss. - Members of Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team Gulfport prepare to heave a sinker and chain connected to an unlighted buoy due for annual maintenance aboard the 26-foot trailerable aids to navigation boat in the Gulfport Ship Channel , Nov. 7, 2011. ANT Gulfport is responsible for the maintenance of 300 fixed and five floating aids to navigation. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Bill Colclough.

GULFPORT, Miss. - Members of Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team Gulfport prepare to heave a sinker and chain connected to an unlighted buoy from a 26-foot trailerable aids-to-navigation boat in the Gulfport Small Boat Harbor, Nov. 7, 2011. ANT Gulfport is responsible for the maintenance of 300 fixed and five floating aids to navigation. The unit's area of responsibility extends from Pearl River on the west end to Belle Fontaine on the east in Mississippi. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Bill Colclough.

GULFPORT, Miss. — Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team Gulfport retrieved a set of unlighted navigational buoys for required annual maintenance in the Gulfport Small Boat Harbor, Monday.

Aboard a 26-foot trailerable aids-to-navigation boat, ANT Gulfport removed both chains and sinkers from the unlighted buoys to inspect damage, wear and fouling from debris. They also replaced numbers missing or damaged, which mark the buoys and their location in the channel for mariners.

"We maintain the aids to navigation for the Biloxi Channel inside the industrial seaway and the intracoastal waterway that bisects the Gulfport Ship Channel," said Petty Officer 1st Class Joshua Reeve, executive petty officer for ANT Gulfport. "We facilitate the safe navigation for many of the vessels carrying coal and mineral resources in Back Bay and the Gulfport Channel."

ANT Gulfport and its nine personnel maintain 300 fixed aids to navigation, such as range lights and day boards, and five floating aids to navigations, which consist of both lighted and unlighted buoys. The unit's area of responsibility extends west from Pearl River to Belle Fontaine on the east end in Mississippi along the Gulf of Mexico.

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