2012 ONR-MTS Buoy Workshop a Huge Success!

  The 9th biannual ONR/MTS Buoy Workshop was recently held in early March, 2012 in the beautiful city of Victoria, capital of the Province of British Columbia, Canada.  President Rick Cole, RDSEA co-chaired the workshop. Nearly one hundred attendees from around the world who are engaged in “buoy technology and engineering” attended and presented talks that made the workshop a huge success. This was the first ONR/MTS buoy technology meeting outside of US, just over the border from Seattle, WA.  Speakers from Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, the U.S. and others gave updates on the continued evolution of buoy systems, both shallow and deep.  Thirty presentations total over the two and a half day meeting. Discussions on coastal applications, as well as deep water systems, taut and slack, from high and low latitudes to the tropics were covered.  NOAA's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC, Stennis, MS) gave an overview of their future planning on out to year 2025.  Site tours were conducted to the Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS) buoy operations group Arctic research program, the University of Victoria’s “VENUS” real-time underwater network, and a visit to Axys Technologies (Sidney, BC) who hosted the workshop. The attendees witnessed an array of buoy system designs and data gathered by various programs.  The workshop continues to grow as does buoy technology and would not take place without the attendees that participate along with the local supporters and hosts.  Rick Co-Chairs with Dr. Walter Paul of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) in Woods Hole, MA.  The organizers are planning their next gathering for 2014.  For more information please contact Rick Cole.