Oh buoy!

A 12-foot Cold War-era Soviet float surfaced on Dania Beach in South Florida after Hurricane Irma, and local authorities speculate it may have originated from Cuba based on the nation’s close proximity and historic relationship with Russia.

Bill Moore, a maintenance mechanic at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park, spotted the buoy two days after the storm hit, according to the Orlando Sun-Sentinel.

“You don’t find that too often,” he told the paper of his discovery.

Moore managed to drag the 1,200 pound buoy with rope and a skid-steer loader to his office parking lot before the Coast Guard could get their hands on it.

“They tried to confiscate it,” he said of the Coast Guard, whose administrative offices are right next door to the park’s headquarters. Moore has since offered to hand it over to authorities if they still want it.

Moore suspects the drift, which reads “Hydrometrical Service of the USSR” in Russian on the side, likely floated 350 miles from Cuba.

Meteorologists agree.

“In Irma, the storm came from the south-southeast. And in a storm like that, something could get dislodged,” Robert Molleda, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the paper.

“It could go adrift and easily wind up in Florida,” he added.

Still unknown is what the buoy is used for — and whether it’s simply a vestige or is still in use.

One word on the buoy literally translates into “water-measuring” and another says that it has a lifting capacity of 6,600 pounds, said Harold M. Leich, Russian Area Specialist of the European Division of the Library of Congress.

Buoys like the one found in South Florida are sometimes used to predict changes in the weather, said Molleda. Buoys can also measure wave height, as well as predict natural disasters like tsunamis.

While some buoys monitor the weather, Leich suspects the one found in Florida might have a dual purpose dating back to Fidel Castro’s rise to power in Cuba in the 1960’s.

At the time, Russia provided aid to Cuba and used the neighboring country as a base to spy on the U.S.

“My best guess is the buoy, and probably many others just like it or similar to it, were placed by the Soviets as an aid to navigation for Soviet vessels bringing materials to Cuba or returning back to the USSR,” Leich explained.

“In the chaos of the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the infrastructure placed by the Soviets simply remained in Cuba, including this buoy,” he added.

Mysteries still surround the discovery, said park manager Steven Dale.

Men claiming to work for the Navy investigative team came to inspect the buoy a few days ago and offered to haul it away, but never returned.

“I said, ‘leave your business card,’” but the men left — without leaving a card — and haven’t returned, Dale told the Sun Sentinel.