2025 Drifter Tracks
Resolving transport pathways through New England's continental shelf waters and beyond
updated every few hours
See a GoogleMap of just this month's tracks.
Go to Student Drifters Homepage.
See how to navigate a drifter track animation portal
Find out how to get involved with the project
Access the historical drifter data from the old NOAA site.
Access the historical drifter data from new Stonehill/ODN site after watching a 2-min video on how.
See list of peer-reviewed publications using these drifter data.
Get information on a related unmanned sailboat project
Plots of recent tracks are linked in the table below.
Drifter tracks from 2022 are here and those from 2023 & 2024 are here.
Drifter tracks from in previous years (email james.patrick.manning@gmail.com).
To get PYTHON processing routines, email James Manning for the latest versions.
To see information on individual clusters, click the links in the following chronological table
| Institution (data) |
PI (report/blog) | Deployers (deploy video) | Date Deployed (animation) | Dropsite (forecast) | #units | Science (sensor map) | Status (googlemap) | ID-Type of Unit (photo) | Fate (photo) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caterbury School of Florida/ USF | Audrey Mitchell/Chris Stallings | RV Weatherbird II | Mar 14, 2025 | Gulf of Mexico | 1 | education and SHELF Research Program | done | surface "irina" drifter | 253250841 took a few days to power up but eventually started reporting ... finally made it around the corner in July to head north ... went dead on Jul 22nd off Cape Hatteras but came back to life for a week or so in early-August before it reported its last on 15 August 2025 |
| Falmouth MA High School | Cheryl Milliken | R/V Tioga | Apr 8, 2025 | Cape Cod Bay | 5 | education | done | surface "Irina" drifter with 2 miniboats and 2 makerbuoys | 254410701 progressed slowly towards the southeast for a few days, went into the canal on April 13th including a short stay inside Sandwich Boat Basin, went back into the bay, landed near the mouth where Alison McDonald recovered it.
254410702 (miniboat Riptide) quickly went ashore near "Bayberry Rd" north of Ellisville, brought up the beach by "Cory", and recovered by JiM; 254410703 (miniboat Rockstar) quickly went ashore during first tidal cycle a bit south of "Pilgrim Way" recovered; 254410704 MakerBuoy minidrifter landed at 48 Salt Marsh Rd in Sandwich on 13 April after traversing most of the bay and strong winds from the north picked up by Alison McDonald; 254410705 MakerBuoy minidrifter landed at 64 Salt Marsh Rd in Sandwich on 13 April after traversing most of the bay, got lodged in the rocks so Alison McDonald recovered it the next day; |
| Southern Maine Community College | Tarbox | Jeff Putman's F/V Captain B Obie Spear's F/V Tenacious ? |
Apr 25, 2025 Apr 30, 2025 Oct 26,2025 |
Jeffrey's Ledge | 1, 1 1 |
education | underway | surface "brian" drifters | 254430701 slowly headed southeastward on normal track to Georges Bank but then headed north for the circumnavigation of the gulf ... near Grand Manan in mid-July and came ashore on Ogunquit Beach on August20th where a beachwalker reported it and Brian picked it up minus sails 254430702 came ashore May 4th just south of Kennebunkport on some rocks at the end of Crescent Surf Drive and then recovered ... brought to 82 Ross Road in Kennebunk ... and then back to SMCC 250430702 ... |
| NOAA/NEFSC | Dave Richardson | ??? | July 16, 2025 | MAB Shelf/Slope Front | 1 | Fish Larval Transport | done | "Dave" drifter w/light-trap tethered below | one short deployment of only a few hours so not included in the master database |
| Cohasset Center for Student Coastal Research | Buckley | Joe Barrow's F/V Ryan Joseph; Tom Depersia's Bigfish III Sportfishing Charters; Cory Barrow's F/V Herbert L Jason; Seven Seas Whale Watch's M/V Privateer_4 |
21 July 2025; 23 July 2025; 30 Aug 2025; 19 Sep 2025; |
Mass Bay | 1; 1; 1; 1; |
education | underway | surface "irina" drifters | 257420701 recovered 3/4 miles off Scituate about 24 hours into its track by Kevin Ricketts a charter fisherman; 257420702 redeployment by charter fishermen ~7 miles east of Green Harbor...stayed near Stellwagen for about a month ... stayed mid-gulf for another month or two 258420701 headed northward ... flirted with the North Shore coast for a few days before finally landing on the Gull Cove rocks in Rockport and recovered by Clay Kern and others from the Northshore Adventure Center with a few minor rips; 259420701 redeployed by Ipswich High students and Capt Salvatore Jay Frontierro aboard the Seven Seas Whale Watch ... drifted around Isle of Shoals ... then headed south and on its way to Georges Bank in late October 2025 |
| Wellan Montessori | Rosen/Perrault | F/V Wicked Wendy (Jeff White and Pablo) | Oct 24, 2025 | Southern Maine | 1 | education | underway | wooden turtle | 250430701... |
| National Sea Grant (Stonehill/CSCR/MIT) | Gianesin Martin/Cerami Tamash |
F/V Tenacious M/VShinningStar R/V Gemma |
Oct 24, 2025 Oct 24, 2025 Oct 24, 2025 |
Mass Bay and surrounding waters | 1 2 1 |
marine debris transport | underway | surface "irina" drifters | 250420681/3404137 Barnstable High F Block and G Block deployed by F/V Tenacious II well east of Ptown 250420703/4593540 Little Harbor School in Portsmouth NH deployed near Isle of Shoals and came ashore several hours later between Star and Cedar Island 250420704/3401868 Little Harbor School in Portsmouth NH deployed near Isle of Shoals ... headed south 250410703/3402731 Barnstable High Environ Sci deployed by R/V Gemma .. 25042070?/3403771 Scituate High deployed by Frank Mirachi .. |
| WHOI Sea Grant OSTEAM | Simpkins/Gregory | R/V Tioga | Oct 2025; Winter 2025/26; Spring 2026; Summer 2026 |
Mass Bay | 4; 4; 4; 4; |
Pilgrim Plant effluent transport | underway | surface "irina" drifters | 250410701 ...; 250410702 ...; 250420701 ...; 250420702 ...; 261420701,..4; 264420701,..4; 268420701,..4; |
| Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab | Steve Ruberg | ? | July 2025 | Lake Michigan? | 5 | Fish Larval Transport? | planned | surface "eddie" drifters? | 257440861 ...; 257440862 ...; 257440863 ...; 257440864 ...; 257440865 ...; |
| Stockton University | Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert | ?? | 2025? | off New Jersey | 1 | education | planned | surface "irina" drifter | 233400731... |
Note: Most units are prepared by students in the classroom. The majority are standard surface drifters" marking only the top 1-meter of the water column, and some have subsurface drogues typically centered at 10m-15m below the surface. For details, call 508-566-4080 or email james.patrick.manning@gmail.com.