That’s not how a random sample works.
You cannot do a random sample of the entire Earth by letting buoys drift.
To do a random sample, you have to start from scratch and randomly sample the entire Earth, not just allow buoys to float around near where they were previously.
So free-floating buoys NEITHER work if you think sampling the same place each year works NOR do they constitute a random sample.
For example, if you are doing a random sample of voters, and you call 2929 Oak Tree Road one year, you cannot sample the house next door at 2927 Oak Tree Road next year.
That’s not a random sample
“That’s not how a random sample works.”
REREAD my post. I was not explaining how to take random samples. I was pointing out that the author said land measurements were invalid because they were in fixed locations but bouy samples were not valid because they were NOT in fixed locations.