Like everything the government touches, they'll wait until there's an emergency before responding. A barge or tanker filled with gas or some toxic chemical will run aground at the Shrewsbury Rocks and cause the worse environmental spill this area has ever seen before putting the buoy back. I always understood this buoy to mark the rocks as a guide for tanker and tugboat / barge traffic taking the most inshore southerly route along the coastline heading in or out of Sandy Hook or the Hudson. Makes no sense to me those buoys were removed but hey let's just wait for the next Valdez and we can put them back then.