5 June 2014

Science Buoys Temporarily Out of Hawke’s Bay Waters

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s science team will be taking the coastal water quality ‘HAWQi’ buoy off-line this month, while Lake Tūtira the monitoring buoy is already out of the water for servicing.

The HAWQi buoy is located off the coast north of Napier and provides a range of data on water quality, temperature, waves and tides through HBRC’s website www.hbrc.govt.nz. The data is used by boaties and other coastal users, as well as by HBRC’s science team in providing information for policy development.

The science team aim to take the HAWQi buoy offline this week, weather depending, to add an ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) to the range of instruments on the buoy. This instrument will provide important information on ocean currents within the bay.

The aim is to have the buoy back in the ocean and transmitting data by the end of July.

The buoy at Lake Tūtira performs a similar function in providing data on the fresh water lake. It has been in place since January 2009. The buoy was taken out of the water for routine servicing late last month. HBRC’s science team are using data from the buoy to develop computer models to look at solutions for the lake’s persistent water quality issues.

ENDS

© Scoop Media