There is a considerable requirement for floats or buoys in maritime industries, whether fresh water or salt water. Floats are used to suspend fishing nets within a body of water; they are used to suspend shellfish collectors in water for shellfish aquaculture; they are used to mark or identify particular fishing waters or navigational hazards; they are used to anchor boats at a particular location if they themselves are anchored to the bottom, for example; they can be coloured to identify property belonging to particular individuals; they can be used to suspend hoses or cables leading from an onshore installation to an offshore location; or they can be put to recreational purposes, defining a course for racing boats or water-skiers.
No matter what the end use thereof, a float or a buoy always entails a floating member and a mechanism for anchoring the float to something else, whether a net, collector, or other suspended article, to the bottom of a body of water, or to something adjacent the bottom, such as a shipwreck. The floating member is often made from a buoyant material per se, such as wood, or it involves a sealed container having air trapped therein. In any event most commercially available buoys of floats tend to be well-made, rugged, long-lasting, and, accordingly, very expensive.
Many cottagers make their own floats or buoys from discarded blow molded bottles of the 2 to 4 liter variety, which bottles commonly have a handle integrally molded thereon for carrying purposes. A marker buoy, for example to identify the location of a hazardous rock or to pinpoint the location of the end of a water hose, can be readily prepared by securing the original cap to such a bottle and tying a length of rope to the handle, with a brick at the other end of the rope for anchoring the buoy at its desired location. In time however, water leaks into the bottle and it will settle deeper in the water, becoming less visible and hence less effective. Such a buoy does not float in a true vertical orientation because of the offset nature of the integral handle.
There is a need for a very inexpensive float or buoy that can be easily replaced if necessary and which will be as effective as commercially available buoys or floats and equal to the hand-made floats or buoys in convenience and cost. A particularly useful article for such a buoy or float is the popular and abundantly available PET (polyethyleneteraphthalate) bottle commonly found in a 2 liter size and containing soft drink. Such bottles are available in a variety of colours; they are of a good size for the intended purpose; and they are available free of charge, being garbage after one has consumed the contents thereof. Furthermore, they are not biodegradable and unless a community has an active recycling programme such bottles will end up in landfill to the benefit of no one. The only problem with using such bottles as floats or buoys is the lack of a handle thereon or any convenient mechanism for attaching an anchor rope thereto.