A wave buoy, which sits 13km off Pukehina Beach and monitors and records information about wave heights, water temperature and wave frequency, is back in the water in time for summer suffers and boaties.
It's popular with boaties and surfers in the region, as its data can be viewed live on the Regional Council's website.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council's wave buoy has returned to the water.
Regional Council's Data Services Manager Glenn Ellery says the buoy had been out of the water for a couple of months after it was washed up on to a beach in July.
Staff have taken the opportunity for a full check-up and overhaul.
'We were fortunate that there wasn't much damage to the buoy when it broke free,” says Glenn, 'but it is a specialist piece of equipment so we had to send away overseas for parts.
'We took the opportunity to give it a good overhaul and service.
'We also replaced the mooring, including the very specialised bungy that allows us to measure wave height.
'We know it is one of the most popular pages on our live monitoring site so it must have been well-missed by Tauranga locals. We're pleased to get it back up and working in time for the spring and summer boaties and surfers to check before they head out.”
The wave buoy data is available at: www.boprc.govt.nz along with other data collected by Bay of Plenty Regional Council relating to the region's soil, air, rivers and lakes.
1 comment
Update Frequency
Posted on 08-10-2014 15:57 | By M@M
Its great to see that the service is back on line. When looking at the A buoy conditions on the harbour website and comparing it with the Pukenhina buoy, you get a good idea of the conditions before you drag the boat out of the shed. It can save a lot of time and disappointment getting down to the mouth to find the sea on its ear. One question I have is why the Pukehina Wave buoy only refreshes its data every three hours unlike A bouy which is every few minutes? Any body know why?
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to make a comment.