Wednesday, June 08, 2005

By Larry Pakowski, PR Intern

Wilmington, N.C. - Media are cordially invited to Johnnie Mercer’s Pier in Wrightsville Beach, N.C. to observe the deployment of a subsurface mooring that will provide real-time weather and oceanographic data. This is part of the Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Project (CORMP), which deployed two real-time buoys off the coast on June 6, 2005.

Please plan to be set up to film at 7:15 a.m., Wednesday, June 15 from the end of Mercer’s Pier. Divers will begin their operation at approximately 7:30 a.m., and the entire process for deploying the mooring should be completed at approximately 12:00 noon.

This subsurface mooring will house wave, current, salinity, and water temperature instruments that will transmit data on a real-time basis. The same system will be installed on Long Beach Pier in Oak Island, N.C. by August.

CORMP is a NOAA-funded initiative, located at UNCW’s Center for Marine Science. The buoys deployed last week, in addition to the deployment of this new subsurface mooring will transmit weather and sea information hourly. All data transmitted will be incorporated into NOAA’s Nation Weather Service marine observations and forecasts, as well as the dial-a-buoy service.