Pride of Bilbao starts studying the ocean

2002/06/06 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Ozeanografia

The commercial boat P&O, which makes the maritime route Portsmouth-Bilbao, will try to know better the heart of the ocean. From now on, this boat, in addition to transporting passengers and materials, will have another function: thanks to scientific sensors, the boat that leaves Portsmouth, crosses the Cherbour channel and arrives in Bilbao will analyze this section.

Some sensors that will be incorporated into the boat will measure water temperature, salinity and fluorescence, among others. Data will pass from sensors located under the ship to internal monitors. Then some computers will order all the data and send it to the ship bridge from where it will be sent via satellite to the Southampton Oceanography Center. The scientists of this center, in order to improve the situation of the ocean, will carefully analyze all the data. Occasionally, scientists travel by boat to see cetaceans and birds inhabiting the sea.

In the future, this same system would also like to be used in other European marine areas such as the Baltic, the Irish coast and the Mediterranean.