Central Oregon Coast Icon Gets Loose: Depoe Bay's Buoy Banging Against Rocks

Published 11/15/2026 at 8:58 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Depoe Bay, Oregon) – Early on Saturday morning, the message shot out from the US Coast Guard: “Lighted bell buoy 2 (LLNR 9785) is offstation.” (Photo Oregon Coast Beach Connection: file photo of stormy Depoe Bay channel)

That famed ringing buoy that hovers perpetually offshore from Depoe Bay – and the one that makes that charming clanging sound – had come loose and drifted from its usual half-mile spot. 30-foot waves were pounding the area and large ones will be doing so through Monday.

Photos and video sprang up all day around the Oregon coast of the big red icon knocking against the basalt ledges of the central coast town.

See pics of the stranded buoy

Officials are now waiting for conditions to calm before attempting to pick it up, according to Petty Officer 1st Class Lara Davis, with the US Coast Guard.

“Yesterday evening the Coast Guard became aware that Buoy #2 broke free of its regular mooring location and immediately issued a Safety Marine Information Broadcast (SMIB) which is used for alerting mariners about hazards to navigation,” she told Oregon Coast Beach Connection. “This notice was transitioned to a regular Broadcast Notice to Mariners (BNM) at first light today. The BNM will go out for a week, then be placed into the Light List until canceled.”

Buoy #2 is used for navigational purposes, Davis said. It helps them line up with the narrow channel. It is not used for transmitting weather or wave data. You can see live buoy wave data at the Depoe Bay weather page.

So how is it fastened at that half-mile mark?

File photo Oregon Coast Beach Connection

“Buoy #2 is typically fastened to the ocean floor with approximately 200 feet of chain affixed to concrete blocks known as sinkers,” Davis said. “Though it has drifted, it appears to not be fully free floating indicating that it may still be weighed down by a length of chain.”

What happens next depends on much. It'll be at least Tuesday before conditions calm

“Due to the current Caption of the Port Order closing the bar and heavy weather, right now crews are unable to safely access the buoy where it has drifted,” Davis said. “Watchstanders at Coast Guard Station Depoe Bay are maintaining visual monitoring of Buoy #2 and are coordinating with buoy tender crews to reposition the buoy when possible.”

This isn't the first time it's gotten loose.

Oregon Coast Beach Connection reported on it twice in the space of just over a month back in 2006. And there were other times before that – before Oregon Coast Beach Connection existed. There was a massive storm in November of 2006 and then another even bigger one in late December (both just a year before the Great Gale of 2007).

Peg Leoni was owner of Trollers Lodge at the time and told Oregon Coast Beach Connection that first time that the massive device sunk near the bay mouth. The second time, it ended up below the traffic light. As Leoni put it: “Our neighbors, the Overmeyer's, thought it was unusually loud yesterday morning. Well, it was right below their oceanfront home.”

How it was retrieved in the past sounded like a dramatic, major operation. As Leoni described it: “They bring out a huge ship – it looks like the Lusitania – and a big crane and everything.”

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