🔍 Key Concepts

• Floating aids to navigation (buoys) are not fixed to the bottom like beacons or lighthouses • Effects of weather, current, ice, and collision on a buoy’s exact position and operation • Difference between what you can "assume" vs. what you must treat with caution on the chart and on the water

💭 Think About

• Look at each option and ask: does this statement claim something is always or never true about a buoy or wreck mark? How realistic is that at sea? • Think about what can physically happen to a buoy or its mooring in strong current, storms, or after being struck by a vessel—how would that affect position and light characteristics? • Consider how you’re taught to use buoys and wreck marks together with the chart and other navigation methods—are they meant to be treated as exact, or as approximate?.

✅ Before You Answer

• Check which options use absolute words like "always" or "never" and decide if that fits real‑world buoy behavior • Recall that a wreck buoy is meant to indicate a danger area, but ask yourself if you should assume the wreck is exactly underneath it or in the general vicinity • Verify which statement best matches the idea that floating aids are aids to navigation, not precise survey markers, and must be used with other information (chart, radar, depth sounder, GPS)