PLYMOUTH, Mass. — When the electrical system on Dominic Zanke’s 42-foot fishing boat, Tyrant, suddenly failed one day this spring, the veteran lobsterman was 35 miles out to sea, with no radio or radar to guide him home.

Zanke, who fishes out of Stonington, Maine, saw little cause for worry. He knew he could rely on an old-school fallback: the sprawling network of Coast Guard navigational buoys that dot the coastline from Maine to New Jersey. Generations of fishermen, ferry captains and recreational boaters have taken comfort in knowing that if all else fails, the buoys will be there.

In recent months, though, that faith has been shaken by a Coast Guard proposal to do away with roughly 350 buoys, a winnowing the agency says makes sense given decades of advancement in electronic tools for

See Full Page