It was an unusual sight for a Wheatley resident who looked in his backyard and noticed that a buoy had washed ashore.
According to Peter Bech, the 13-foot long buoy washed onto his lakeshore property on April 4 after severe winds on Lake Erie.
Bech said he immediately contacted the Coast Guard and after several calls, was told that they would put it on their list of priorities. However, nearly a week later, he said the buoy has now swayed onto his neighbour's property and has yet to be removed.
With the item weighing around 1,000 pounds, Bech described it as a "missile waiting to launch" the next time a storm rolls in.
"If it moves back out into the water, it's going to be a hazard to mariners, especially the small fishing fleet here in Wheatley," Bech explained. "Or, I said, worst-case scenario, it may even come in and cause damage to somebody's property, which is probably the more likely at the moment."
Bech, a retired naval worker, said the buoy came from about half a kilometre off of shore and is supposed to be in the water to mark hazards.
"It's there to tell them [mariners] to stay starboard, to the left, of the channel, because it's dangerous. So it being displaced from its spot is a hazard in itself," he said.
Bech explained that buoys are attached to a metal chain which is then anchored to the bottom of the lake with a 10-tonne piece of concrete. For the buoy to break free from that kind of constraint, Bech believes is due to a more severe ongoing issue in the area- shoreline erosion. He said where he lives on Hickory Road, the shoreline can fluctuate up to five feet on any given day, depending on which way the wind is blowing.
"It just shows you that the displacement of the sand, the bluffs on the other side, it's penetrating this cove so much that the bottom is constantly moving," said Bech.
When contacted by Blackburn News about the buoy, a representative from the Canadian Coast Guard said they will be getting in touch with Bech directly to solve the issue.