I am writing to strongly oppose the proposed discontinuance and removal of a very large number of fixed and floating aids to navigation along the U.S. coast, as proposed by the U.S. Coast Guard and published in a local notice to mariners on Jan. 16.

As a professional mariner for over 50 years, and as a professor of navigation at Maine Maritime Academy for 35 years, I feel well qualified to state that removal of physical aids to navigation is a very dangerous idea. Every year in my navigation class I showed examples where overdependence on electronic navigation aids caused accidents.

I emphasized strongly that while electronic navigation aids are an invaluable supplement to traditional navigation techniques, they must constantly be monitored to verify their accuracy. Depending on a system that relies on so many distant and non-verifiable operating pieces (satellites, base stations, computers, timing mechanisms) is nothing like looking out the window and seeing the buoy.

Yes, buoys are also fallible, and they need to be verified too. That is what good seamanship is all about: never trust a single method of navigation. Always use another, non-related method to verify each one.

The stakes today are much higher than ever before. Ships are so large and so fast that the margins of error are down to a hair. The only way to be sure of where you are and where you are going is to have multiple methods of checking one against the other.

Furthermore, there are many people who do not carry cell phones. Small boat operators deserve to have navigational options that do not require investing in expensive phones, data plans and navigation apps. Furthermore, batteries die, signal strength isn’t always suitable, and handheld phones or GPS units fall overboard. When that happens in the fog or at night, whistle buoys, bell buoys, gong buoys and lighted aids are a lifesaver.

This is a life safety issue, and a pollution prevention issue of the highest magnitude. The U.S. Coast Guard must not remove those buoys.