What Does A White Buoy With A Blue Band Mean In Boating?

Like Coast Guard and Navy ships, which are often painted different colors to indicate their roles on the water, buoys use color coding to communicate different information to boaters. For example, red and green colored buoys indicate what direction you should be traveling when returning from open water. But a white buoy striped with a blue band has a different purpose.

In U.S. waterways, that coloring indicates a mooring buoy. A mooring buoy is a tie-up point, where you’re legally allowed to secure your boat without having to drop anchor. Unlike buoys of other colors, white buoys aren’t navigational aids, nor do they indicate specific waterborne hazards, or dedicated swimming areas from which watercraft are banned.

Mooring buoys can come in either cylindrical or spherical varieties, but in both cases, they have a blue stripe designed to always be visible above the water line (meaning it typically lives near the middle or top of the buoy). It’s the color scheme recommended by official, federal guidance, and is designed to clearly and easily differentiate buoys from the sort of navigational and indicator markers mentioned above.

Living on the water, is very different than land. Often there are specific purposes for everything you find on the water, like these wild super-specialized ships. Similarly, it’s important to note that different white buoys have very specific purposes; that blue band isn’t aesthetic; it is designed to clearly distinguish mooring buoys. There are a series of white buoys, for instance, that are marked with geometric shapes in orange. These are called regulatory buoys, and they indicate things like speed limits in a channel and no wake zones, or they can demarcate swim areas and other areas where boats are restricted. Buoys of this type are not designed for tying up.

There are also buoys painted white but with a horizontal red stripe. This typically indicates that you should navigate to the south or west, while a horizontal green stripe indicates you should steer to the north or east. Vertical red stripes on a white buoy indicate the middle of a channel. Again, neither type should ever be used for mooring purposes. In cases of confusion or ambiguity about the meaning of any naval buoy, the best course of action is to consult local documentation, marina signage, or to directly communicate with an official. Inappropriate mooring can not only carry fines or other legal consequences but can also be hazardous to you or your boat.