Smart Buoys are Monitoring Water Quality and Sound Around San Diego Bay

Bright, yellow pods with a blinking light are beginning to pepper San Diego Bay. They might be mistaken for weather buoys, but they are “smart buoys,” put in place to monitor various environmental conditions.

Chained and anchored to the seafloor in the South Bay off National City, the buoys’ internal computers get to work, aggregating data in “near real-time” and displaying results on an online dashboard, according to the Port of San Diego’s Web site.

These particular smart buoys are...