2025-2026 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 and other info email james.patrick.manning@gmail.com
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falmouth MA High School | Cheryl Milliken | R/V Tioga F/V Resolve |
Apr 8, 2025 Dec 2, 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; 250410710 came ashore on Great Island in Wellfleet a few weeks later, recovered by WBWS staff, and picked up by Cheryl |
| Southern Maine Community College | Tarbox | Jeff Putman's F/V Captain B Obie Spear's F/V Tenacious Obie Spear's F/V Newfie Star |
Apr 25, 2025 Apr 30, 2025 Nov 13, 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 headed out to sea, got got in a Gulf Stream Ring in Jan 2026, and ... |
| 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 months ... south og Greenland by Jan 2026 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 made its way to Georges Bank in November 2025 and died mid-December 2025 |
| Wellan Montessori | Rosen/Perrault | F/V Wicked Wendy; Scituate Police Marie Unit 2 (MP2) |
Oct 24, 2025; Nov 7, 2025 |
Southern Maine | 1; 1 |
education | underway | wooden turtle | 250430701 "Pablo" deployed by Jeff White from York Maine came ashore in Macomber's Creek in Marshfield MA at about mid-night on Halloween eve and then showed up near Wills Island a few days later 250420706 rescued & redeployed by Scituate Police (Lt Norton and Officer Orr) as described in a Channel 7 news report |
| National Sea Grant (Stonehill/CSCR/MIT) | Gianesin Martin/Cerami Tamash Perotto Colella/Milliken Byrne/Holland Gretchell/Satterwhite/Blair |
F/V Tenacious M/V ShinningStar R/V Gemma F/V Yankee Rose F/V Resolve F/V Ryan Joseph F/V Diligaf |
Oct 24, 2025 Oct 24, 2025 Oct 24, 2025 Nov 2, 2025 Dec 10, 2025 Dec 13, 2025 Dec 23, 2025 |
Mass Bay and surrounding waters | 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 3 |
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 and then died out beyond the Grand Banks on 28 Dec 2025 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 and died a few days after Xmas hundreds of miles offshore in deep water 250410703/3402731 Barnstable High Environ Sci deployed by R/V Gemma southwest of Martha's Vineyard then headed to Nantucket Shoals by mid-November and headed towards Grand Banks in February 2026 250420705/3403771 Scituate High deployed by Frank Mirachi and Kevin Norton near Stellwagen Bank and ... 250410704/3401459 Falmouth High School headed east for a few days close to outer cape until it came ashore on Jeremy Point in Wellfleet on Dec 22nd and was recovered the next day by Audubons Brian Merrigan and Madi Johson 250410705/4592386 Boston Public Schools headed east for a few days close to out cape until it came ashore in Dennis on 27 Dec 2025 where Brendan Murphy first photographed & reported it while beachwalking along with many others (Gary Nowitz, Maureen McBrian, Olivia Delvecc and Glenn) who subsequently called it in before Cheryl Milliken brought it home on 29 December. 250420707/3406428 Weymouth MWC Middle School initially headed north ... turned around ...hung out in GSC for weeks... 250420708/3403626 Boston Adult Technical Academy blew off the upper deck while at sea but survived... 250420709/4594860 Hull Middle deployed by Larry Trowbridge died mid-Jan 2026 off the backside of Cape Cod 2504207010/3403887 Brockton VoTech deployed by Larry Trowbridge... 2504207011/4592460 Brockton East Middle deployed by Larry Trowbridge... |
| WHOI Sea Grant OSTEAM | Simpkins/Gregory | R/V Tioga | Oct 24 2025; Winter 2026; Spring 2026; Summer 2026 |
Cape Cod Bay | 4; 4; 4; 4; |
Pilgrim Plant effluent transport | underway | surface "irina" drifters | 250410701 came ashore near the Pilgrim Nuclear Facility ... recovered by JiM; 250410702 entered Plymouth Harbor on Oct 28 but then returned to the bay when the wind turned around and escaped the bay in mid-November ... decommissioned on Dec 1 and never heard from again 250420701 entered Plymouth Harbor to come ashore at the end of Massasoit Rd in Duxbury on Halloween Eve, reported & photographed by beach walker Morgan Nickerson, picked up by Ralph Perrotto a Scituate High teacher and handed over to Margaret Gregory...; 250420702 escaped the bay on 5 Nov ...decommissioned on Dec 1 and appear south of Georges Bank after being reprovisioned in early 2026; 262420701/4593522 Ella and Viv; 262420702/4592314 Annie and Autumn; 262420703/4592377 Kyra; 264420701,..4; 268420701,..4; |
| WHOI Sea Grant OSTEAM | Simpkins/Gregory | R/V Tioga | Feb 2026 | Cape Cod Bay | 3 | Pilgrim Plant effluent transport | planned | surface "irina" drifters |
262420701/4593522 Ella and Viv; 262420702/4592314 Annie and Autumn; 262420703/4592377 Kyra; |
| Salem Sound Coast Watch | Nicole Frymier | ? | 2026 | North Shore | 1 | education | planned | surface "irina" drifter | 26?420701 |
| Baxter Academy of Technology | Kate Strait | ? | 2026 | Gulf of Maine | 1 | education | planned | surface "irina" drifter | 26?430701 |
| Winnacunnett High School | Lisa Pagano | ? | 2026 | Gulf of Maine | 1 | education | planned | surface "irina" drifter | 26?420701 |
| University of New England | Will Kochtitzky | ? | 2026 | Gulf of Maine | 1 | education | planned | surface "irina" drifter | 26?420701 |
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.