Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Media are cordially invited to go out on UNCW’s Research Vessel Cape Fear to observe deployment of a new buoy off Wrightsville Beach that will transmit real-time weather and oceanographic data. By September, boaters and fishermen from Morehead City, N.C. to Little River, S.C., will benefit from four new real-time buoys, along with two pier-based stations, which will transmit marine weather and oceanographic information on an hourly basis.

Please plan to be ready to depart at 1 p.m., Monday, June 6 from the dock at the UNCW Center for Marine Science, 5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane, off Masonboro Loop Road south of Wilmington. Television crews and photographers may park in the traffic circle at the dock. A golf cart will be available to carry gear to the research vessel. Water will be provided but please bring snacks. We should return to the dock by 6:30 p.m.

Directions to the UNCW Center for Marine Science: Travel 132 South (College Road) to the traffic light at Mohican Trail. Make LEFT onto Mohican, continuing straight until it ends at Masonboro Loop Road. Turn RIGHT onto Masonboro Loop Road.Marvin K. Moss Lane is about ½ mile on the LEFT. Our facility is at the end by the Intracoastal Waterway.

Joining us on the mission will be Marvin K. Moss, co-director of CORMP; Steve Pfaff, marine program leader of the National Weather Service in Wilmington; Dennis Ihnat, assistant director for technical operations at CMS who worked with CORMP until November 2004; and Anthony Snider, southern sites manager, N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve. All will be available for interviews.

The Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program (CORMP), is a NOAA-funded initiative, located at UNCW’s Center for Marine Science. The buoy deployed June 4 is one of two scheduled for deployment in June and two more will be deployed in September. Similar to the Frying Pan buoy, they will transmit weather and sea state information almost hourly. All data transmitted will be incorporated into NOAA’s National Weather Service marine observations and forecasts, as well as the dial-a-buoy service. In June, CORMP will also outfit Johnnie Mercer’s Pier (Wrightsville Beach) with wave, current, salinity and water temperature instruments that will also transmit data on a real-time basis. CORMP will install the same system on Long Beach Pier (Oak Island) by August.

The buoys scheduled for deployment in June are named ILM2 and ILM3 and will be located off Wrightsville Beach, NC. Both buoys were fabricated by NC State University’s Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. ILM2 will be approximately 5 miles from shore (located at approximately N34°08.400' W77°42.900') and ILM3 will be 27 miles from shore (approximately N33°58.753' W77°20.929'). These buoys will transmit weather data (air temperature, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, solar radiation, and humidity) and oceanographic data (water temperature, salinity, current speed and direction); however, they will not provide real-time wave data initially.

CORMP was created under the strategic plan for the congressionally-mandated Integrated Ocean Observations System (IOOS). IOOS calls for a sustained, integrated system to improve weather forecasting, predictions of climate change and related impacts on coastal populations, improved safety and efficiency of marine operations, and increased monitoring of coastal ecosystem health. CORMP, at UNC Wilmington, is a research and monitoring program that addresses these goals in the coastal ocean region of Long Bay and Onslow Bay. The program mission is to provide an interdisciplinary science-based framework that supports sound public policy leading to wise coastal use, sustainable fisheries and improved coastal ocean ecosystem health. There are two other IOOS members in the region that will be adding buoys in coastal South Carolina waters and along the North Carolina Outer Banks.