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Science relies on buoys with bounce

18 Jul 2008

Elastic wins the day for two customised data buoys that are being deployed in the English Channel off Plymouth this week. The pair of bright yellow, seven metre buoys, bristling with sensitive instruments are part of the £100m national marine science programme Oceans 2025, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
The two data buoys in Mayflower Marina, waiting to be positioned in the Channel
The two data buoys in Mayflower Marina, waiting to be positioned in the Channel

The contract between Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and FenderCare subsidiary Hippo Marine was to supply two buoys for mounting data-collection equipment: it is this apparatus which will provide an unprecedented level of detail to help marine scientists understand how our coastal seas work.

PML team leader Dr Tim Smyth explains one of the buoys will be in an area much closer inshore where the effects of estuarine waters will be seen, the other is to be further out and in very different conditions. However, the decision to mount the equipment on these particular kind of buoys was based on the features specific to Hippo's elastomer design.

Read the full story in Maritime Journal

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