Dual Milestone for CEFAS SmartBuoy

SmartBuoy, an integrated marine data acquisition platform developed and operated by the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas, UK), is celebrating 30,000 cumulative days of deployment in its 15th year of operation. In addition to providing essential calibration and verification of satellite acquired marine data and ecosystem models, SmartBuoy is assisting the development of new technology platforms through provision of in-situ calibration data for autonomous mobile platforms.

Introduced in 2000, SmartBuoy has been deployed around the UK to provide valuable environmental data to a range of stakeholders, is a critical component of the UK Government’s eutrophication monitoring and underpins policy advice. The successful platform has created national collaborative opportunities with institutes including the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) through the Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory and the Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry programme, in addition to international collaborations with Rijkswaterstaat (RWS – The Netherlands) and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI – Northern Ireland).

The uptake of SmartBuoy data has led to nearly 50 peer reviewed scientific papers.

David Sivyer, project manager for Cefas’ SmartBuoy operations commented that combining industry sensors with in-house developed technology (including an onboard data management system (ESM data logger), water sampler, positioning beacon and satellite communications module), SmartBuoy has proven itself to be an extremely effective platform, and provides high-quality data from a number of sites around the UK. He added that SmartBuoy has demonstrated the need for fixed monitoring sites as reference points in order to complement autonomous mobile platforms.

Image: SmartBuoy deployment from RV Cefas Endeavour.