ABP Southampton embarks on new Current Monitoring project with OceanWise

ABP, who have been a customer of OceanWise for nearly 10 years, needed to collect current monitoring data at the South Bramble buoy to provide additional data to pilots on their Portable Pilot Units (PPUs). This data, which will sit alongside the range of other environmental data that ABP already collects and will enhance and assist in important situational awareness of the water current conditions at this key location in the Solent.

The project

After initial consultation, OceanWise installed a Nortek Aquadopp current profiler onto the existing navigation buoy structure at South Bramble. The OceanWise engineers made a couple of tweaks and along with their normal rigorous installation checks, ensured the sensor is sited appropriately below the water surface and ensured that the power and telemetry systems could be accommodated.

The Aquadopp, which is a highly versatile single point current meter, will monitor the water column at various intervals to give a full picture of any deviations in current at different layers. This data will be transmitted via AIS using OceanWise’s smart telemetry solution and be available to users within ABP Southampton’s Port-Log portal, which is used extensively by the Port Group for maritime operations and environmental data management.