Bay of Plenty Regional Council's wave buoy has broken loose and washed ashore on Papamoa Beach.

The buoy was found by a member of the public lying near the high tide line on Papamoa Beach early today.

BOP Regional Council's wave buoy.

Council staff have retrieved the buoy and will assess its condition over the coming days to determine when, or if, the buoy can be reattached and how much damage was sustained when it broke loose and was washed ashore.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Data Services Manager, Glenn Ellery, says it was the first time the buoy had broken free from its mooring since it was first put into operation in 2005.

'The buoy is normally attached to an elastic bungy-type mooring line allowing it to move up and down in the ocean in response to waves. The solar-powered buoy stopped communicating with us on Wednesday afternoon and at the time we had wave heights of six to seven metres, so it was pretty rough out there.

'We were fortunate to have it wash up where it did on a soft sandy beach. We were even more fortunate that a conscientious member of the public called it in as soon as they saw it. It has allowed us to retrieve the buoy and try and get it repaired and back in service,” says Glenn.

The live monitoring site at www.boprc.govt.nz is used widely by members of the public, in particular fishermen and surfers to check conditions before they head out. This means that there will be no live monitoring provided by the buoy for the coming weeks until the buoy has been assessed.