MOVEMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF DRIFTING OBJECTS IN THE SEA AREA AROUND THE OKINAWA AND AMAMI ISLANDS BY DRIFTING BUOY OBSERVATIONS

Abstract

 The routes of drifting objects to the Okinawa and Amami Islands are studied from the cases that drifting fishing boats and spilled oil caused by tanker accidents were reached around the Okinawa and Amami Islands. Observation data from drifting marine meteorological buoy robot (buoy, hereafter) provided by the Japan Meteorological Agency were analyzed. Buoys subjected to southward winds tend to move clockwise from the Kuroshio region to the northern part of the Amami Islands or southward along the western side of the Okinawa and Amami Islands. The tendency of the buoy movement corresponds to the above cases. Buoys that started around the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge tend to show less variability in their trajectories that they moved around the Amami Islands than those that they moved around the Okinawa Islands.