FerryBox
The German FerryBox has been developed by GKSS, together with the company "4H Jena Engineering GmbH" several years ago due to a lack of automated monitoring systems, especially for biological-chemical parameters.
Motivation
Operational monitoring of coastal areas and shelf seas is mainly carried out by manual sampling and analysis during ship cruises. In addition, automatic operating measuring systems on buoys allow routine measurement of standard oceanographic parameters (temperature, salinity, currents) and in some cases other parameters, e.g., turbidity, oxygen and chlorophyll fluorescence. These systems are much affected by biofouling and the maintenance/operation costs are quite high mainly due to ship costs.
Based on all these problems and limitations, it seems logical to investigate which role ships of opportunity could play (Fleming et al. 2002). There are many routes for ferryboats and "ships-of-opportunity" which run quite frequently. Already 60 years ago the "Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR)" [Reid et al. 1998] followed the idea of using scientific equipment on such ships for continuous recording of environmental data. This method is now improved and shows an impressive data set of semi-quantitative phytoplankton data over the world oceans.
Applying such measuring systems on ferry boats or ships-of-opportunity has several advantages:
- the system is protected against harsh environment, e.g. waves & currents,
- bio-fouling can be more easily prevented (inline sensors),
- no energy restrictions (in contrast to buoys),
- easier maintenance when ferry comes back "to your doorstep"
- lower running costs since the operation costs of the ship do not need to be calculated
- instead of point measurements (buoys) transects yield much more information.
Within the GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System) and EuroGOOS Framework GKSS has started initiatives to develop automatic measuring systems for biological-chemical parameters.
Based on all these problems and limitations, it seems logical to investigate which role ships of opportunity could play (Fleming et al. 2002). There are many routes for ferryboats and "ships-of-opportunity" which run quite frequently. Already 60 years ago the "Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR)" [Reid et al. 1998] followed the idea of using scientific equipment on such ships for continuous recording of environmental data. This method is now improved and shows an impressive data set of semi-quantitative phytoplankton data over the world oceans.
Applying such measuring systems on ferry boats or ships-of-opportunity has several advantages:
- the system is protected against harsh environment, e.g. waves & currents,
- bio-fouling can be more easily prevented (inline sensors),
- no energy restrictions (in contrast to buoys),
- easier maintenance when ferry comes back "to your doorstep"
- lower running costs since the operation costs of the ship do not need to be calculated
- instead of point measurements (buoys) transects yield much more information.
Within the GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System) and EuroGOOS Framework GKSS has started initiatives to develop automatic measuring systems for biological-chemical parameters.
FerryBox Activities
One major activity in the last years had been the European project called "FerryBox" in which nine ferry routes will be used for a comparison of different European "FerryBoxes" in different European waters (navigate on the left frame).
Within the GKSS R&D program "MARCOPOLI" and its successor "PACES" different FerryBoxes are operated in different areas of the North Sea (navigate on the left frame).
Further activities which involve stationary (on shore) measurements in Brazil and in Indonesia can be found within the projects.
Within the GKSS R&D program "MARCOPOLI" and its successor "PACES" different FerryBoxes are operated in different areas of the North Sea (navigate on the left frame).
Further activities which involve stationary (on shore) measurements in Brazil and in Indonesia can be found within the projects.
Look at the Ferrybox (stationary) activities in Brazil
Look at the FerryBox (stationary) activities in Indonesia
Whereas today the main FerryBox activities are directed to an application of the developed systems, sometimes improvements of these systems are needed, e.g., the installation of new sensors.
One of the newest development in this context is the new "pocketFerryBox", a small, portable instrument that can be used during field campaigns with small boats (navigate on the left frame).
