News
Felix Away at Sea!
Felix reports back from a survey on the Celtic Voyager to assess the Mobility of Sediment Waves and Sand Banks(MOVE) in the Irish Sea.
Having just returned from a survey on the Celtic Voyager to assess the Mobility of Sediment Waves and Sand Banks(MOVE) in the Irish Sea with UCC PhD candidate and chief scientist Shauna Creane, I am reporting back from my experience of 10 days at sea.
Towing the sparker ‘catamaran’ to acquire sub-seabed data
Shauna aims to understand seabed mobility, morphodynamics and sediment transport pathways in the Irish Sea and how they are related to past and present-day hydrodynamics. This research is particularly important in light of rising demand for renewable energy and ambitions to develop several offshore wind farms off the east coast of Ireland. Sediment mobility is a key consideration in site selection for wind turbines and foundation design. Seabed, sub-seabed and hydrological data are essential to understand bedload processes, and I was delighted to help with these efforts and gain more experience in offshore surveying.
Storm Barra forced us to shelter in Rosslare for two-and-a-half days. We were all glad to weather the storm in port, because working at sea would have been sheer impossible with exceptionally high waves and wind speeds. But despite this generally difficult weather conditions, we had a very productive time, making the most of every weather window. We acquired multibeam echo sounder data, sparker and chirp sub-surface data as well as numerous sediment and water samples.
Storm Barra hits Ireland during our survey (Source: windy.com)
We hope Shauna will be equally successful in processing and analysing the data and wish Shauna all the best for the last year of her PhD. With thanks to Shauna and Ruaihri, the crew of the Celtic Voyager and the onshore support from the Marine Institute.
Sampling seabed sediments using a day grab (left) and filling water samples from the Niskin bottles of the CTD rosette (right)
Ahoy and till next time!