February-June 2009: Successful recovery of two drifting POSEIDON stations
During the first months of 2009, the POSEIDON buoy network suffered by two accidental incidents that reduced its overall monitoring capabilities.
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| 1. Lesvos buoy stopped in a rocky bay at the North-West coast of the island |
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During 16th of February the buoy moored a few miles away from the west coast of Lesvos island, transmitted a major drift from its initial deployment position and two days later it stopped transmitting data. When the POSEIDON recovery team reached the area, the buoy had already crashed in the rocky coasts of the island near Eresso's beach (pic. 1). The instrumentation of the platform was retrieved and some days later a larger team managed to slip through the buoy’s shell, must and frame and tow the platform to R/V Aegeo (pic.2). The buoy started to drift as its mooring line had been intentionally cut off. |
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2. The recovery of Lesvos buoy
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Approximately a month later, POSEIDON team had to face up a similar situation regarding the E1M3A buoy which had been deployed at the NW Cretan Sea. E1M3A is a “Wavescan” type buoy and is used as a multi-parametric open sea recording platform which contributes to EuroSITES Eulerian observatories network.
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3. R/V Aegeo reaches E1M3A buoy and retrieves the cut off cable
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The inductive cable which is also used as the mooring line had been intentionally cut off (see pic. 3) and the buoy started to drift in the North Cretan Sea. The drifting part of the buoy was recovered the next few days by R/V “Aegaeo” without further damages, but significant part of the mooring instrumentation remained underwater, adjusted on the heavy inductive cable. A month later, POSEIDON recovery team joined by the underwater activities team of HCMR made an effort to recover the buoy’s remaining line from 500m using Max-Rover ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle)(pic.4). |
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4. HCMR underwater team and MAX-ROVER robot contribution for the retrieval of Cretan buoy’s mooring line and sensor’s
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Finally the mission ended successfully with the retrieval of all the ctd instrumentation, the releaser, the floaters and the remaining cable. The recovered instrumentation was transferred to HCMR’s facilities at the 7th of June without further problems.
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