12 December 2014

Enhanced HAWQi Coastal Buoy Back in the Water

Coastal water data for Hawke’s Bay will be back online today.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s science team returned the distinctive red and yellow ‘HAWQi’ coastal water quality monitoring buoy to its location offshore off Tangoio this morning.

The buoy streams a range of data on water quality, temperature, waves and tides through HBRC’s website www.hbrc.govt.nz. HAWQi was taken out of the water and off-line in June for servicing and the addition of new instruments which took longer to install and programme than expected.

The new gear that has been added is an ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) which will provide important information on ocean currents within Hawke Bay. There are also new sensors to collect data on dissolved oxygen to provide information on the dynamics of algal blooms.

The data is used by HBRC’s science team in providing information on coastal water quality for policy development, and is also useful for boaties and other coastal users.

HBRC had the assistance of Coastguard Hawke’s Bay who used their launch to transport the buoy back to its coastal position off Tangoio. Divers secured it to its mooring on the seabed.

ENDS

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