IMOS - New Technology Proving - Profiling Moorings Evaluation

Profiling Moorings Evaluation trialled the deployment of two different commercially available profiling mooring platforms (McLane Prawler and Delmar Wirewalker). The project aimed to determine the operational needs of these profiling systems and assess increases in sampling efficiencies and spatial resolution of data through the water column.

During the assessment phase, the two profiling mooring systems were co-located in a range of ocean environments to ensure reliability and longevity over long deployment periods.

The first deployment of the two systems was completed in March 2020, just south of Myrmidon Reef in Queensland by staff from AIMS and CSIRO, to test deployment in a tropical environment. The second deployment took place in inner Storm Bay, Tasmania; a temperate location, with this site similar to the conditions at the IMOS National Reference Stations at Maria Island, Port Hacking and Kangaroo Island.
Subsequent deployments took place in outer Storm Bay in 500m to test the deeper profiling capabilities of both systems; and returned to Myrmidon Reef, Queensland, for final testing after improvements to system and mooring configurations.

These moorings measure ocean temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll fluorescence, turbidity, photosynthesis available radiation, using instruments fixed along the mooring, and a profiler which moves along the mooring wire.