The use of ships of opportunity for Irish Sea based oceanographic measurements

Ships of opportunity such as scheduled ferry services offer the potential for cost effective oceanographic measurements to be undertaken with a high temporal resolution. This provides a convenient mechanism to measure near surface water properties as a series of transects along regularly scheduled routes. There are many potential applications for this kind of system which can effectively compliment more traditional approaches to marine based monitoring such as instrumented moorings, buoys, satellite image analysis and dedicated research cruises. Typical applications include environmental monitoring, scientific studies of coastal and shelf seas, and the provision of validation data for numeric modelling and assimilation purposes. OPne such system or FerryBox has been implemented by Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL) aboard and Irish Sea passenger ferry servicing the Birkenhead to Dublin/Belfast, Ireland routes. This paper discusses the design, implementation and proposed future development of the FerryBox from an engineering based perspective. It is believed that this kind of approach represents a relatively new and novel contribution to marine based measurements and science that is progressively increasing in popularity.