Cabled observatory in Loch Etive (Scotland) successfully deployed

On 28.11.2009, Henrik Stahl and coworkers from the HYPOX team at the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) successfully deployed a cabled observatory in the upper basin of Loch Etive. The deployment took place at best weather conditions with almost no wind after a several week long bad weather period - not unusual at Scotlands west coast at this time of the year. The calm weather allowed to lay the 1200m long cable from the center of Loch Etive to the base station at the shore. Deployment works started out early in the morning with three boats involved: One for deploying the mooring, one for laying the underwater cable and another smaller boat for taking the last bit of the cable into shore. Thanks to the eminent crew of the boats and the marine Technology/Physics department at SAMS everything went according to plan. After plugging in the cable and switching on the power the instruments came alive right away sending data through the cable. The next step is now to connect the base station to the internet for making the data available online in real-time.


Fig. 1: RV Calanus (SAMS) and a supplementary vessel involved in deployment works


Fig. 2: Laying out the underwater cable


Fig. 3: The recording current meter and data processing and communication unit during deployment