The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Marine Technology Society (MTS) Buoy Workshop is an opportunity for buoy industry users to meet and share best practices about buoy-based monitoring systems. The workshop meets every two years at various locations across North America and delegates typically come from all parts of the world to attend.
As part of the workshop, AXYS Technologies Inc. of Sidney, B.C. has opened its doors and provided a tour of its buoy manufacturing operations to over 80 delegates from this event. On display at AXYS headquarters were a 6 Metre NOMAD buoy, several Meteorological and Oceanographic buoys including WatchKeeper and WatchMate platforms, a TRIAXYS Directional Wave buoy, a HydroLevel Water level buoy, and the Data Management System (DMS) and Data Hosting software packages. AXYS engineers were on hand at each of the displays to give an overview of the systems and how each worked.
The workshop tour also included stops at the Institute of Ocean Science (IOS) and the VENUS and Neptune Program of the University of Victoria.
Delegates came away from the tour with an increased knowledge and awareness of putting monitoring systems into the water. They also discovered that the Victoria area is a hotbed of buoy and mooring technology.
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Dredging Today Staff, March 20, 2012; Image: whoi