M/V Richard L. Becker Assists with
Deployment of NOAA Current Meters

During the month of November TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale's 96' OSV Richard L. Becker was contracted to provide vessel support for a NOAA contractor. The operation involved deploying a series of Current Meters in specific locations throughout South Florida. Nine bottom mounted platforms were delivered to TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale's secure storage facility 6 weeks prior to the initial deployment; these mounts varied in size with the largest measuring 7' X 6' X 4' and weighing approximately 750 pounds. The Ocean Engineers assigned to this operation arrived a few days prior to the first deployment to assemble and test the meters before they were installed in the platforms and readied for loading on the Richard L. Becker. Each of the nine bottom mounted platforms and meters were deployed over a 2 day period; the deployment started in Ft. Pierce, moved on to Lake Worth inlet and finished in Miami and Port Everglades. The deployment locations were all inside the respective inlets with exact locations ranging from the mouth of the inlet to one mile inside on the Intracoastal Waterway. Tom Guarino; Master of the M/V Richard L. Becker explained; "The deployment was accomplished as scheduled thanks to the forethought and planning done by our customer. The crew did a great job working alongside the ocean engineers to insure each placement was done safely and accurately; we used our knuckle boom crane as well as our deck mounted winch to execute each deployment."

The next piece of this operation is scheduled for January 09' involving the recovery of each meter and platform along with redeployment of several units in alternate locations to be followed by a final recovery taking place in March. This data will be used by NOAA to update and enhance the NOAA tidal current predictions that are regularly used by mariners throughout the country. To learn more about NOAA's mission and why this work is being conducted, please log on to http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov

TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale owns and operates 12 vessels from 3 locations in Broward County Florida; each of these vessels is available for hourly, daily or long term charter. For more information call TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale at 954-783-7821.