Regional organizations conduct yearly deployments of monitoring platforms throughout the Great Lakes, which are crucial for comprehending water and meteorological conditions. The deployments utilize Sofar Ocean's Spotter platform, which emerges as a versatile and cost-effective option, assisting various stakeholders in their decision-making processes.

Every spring as the ice melts, from Duluth, Minnesota on Lake Superior to Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario, technical personnel from many regional Great Lakes organizations take to the water to deploy a fleet of buoys and other monitoring platforms that are critical to understanding the lakes’ water and meteorological conditions.

These five North American lakes boast a combined 11,000 miles of coastline and contain 20% of the earth’s surface freshwater—90% of the United States’ supply. Besides being a drinking water supply for nearly 50 million people, the whole Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River navigation system is the lifeblood of a $5 trillion regional economy.