A Real-Time Yellow Pages of the Sea
One minute I wanted to check out the waterfront town of Gocek, Turkey, where I’m headed on bareboat charter in July. The next, I needed the wind direction and strength out of Grand Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan. Then a friend wanted to show me Two Harbors, Minnesota, his favorite spot off Lake Superior.
I did all this by logging on to BlooSee, a free site that bills itself as an information-laden portal and social network by and for anyone who has anything to do with the water anywhere on the planet.
Equipped with satellite imagery, government charts, and live wind overlays, the ocean mapping site already contains information from all over the world and hopes to build more through user-generated content that locates everything geographically. Via members-entered data called infopoints, users can gain details on everything from garbage gyres and seabird colonies to more mundane bits like the phone number at the local fuel dock. The site also contains a category called ocean conservation, which includes subcategories for bulletins about marine life, pollution, and ecosystems in need of protection.
BlooSee can also be downloaded as an app. Its founders are based out of California, and they unveiled the site at a press conference at the 2011 Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show in Oakland, California.
