FINDING Nemo took on a whole new meaning yesterday morning when a couple of scientists teamed up with a commercial marine operator from Huskisson to retrieve an underwater glider.
The unmanned underwater SLOCUM glider, affectionately named Nemo, was located 17 nautical miles off Point Perpendicular.
It is the first time one of the gliders has been used in the region’s waters.
Valued at more than $100,000 it provides data about salinity and water temperature and ocean water colour.
It came to be in South Coast waters by mistake after being launched from Port Stephens on November 24.
The original plan was for the glider to be picked up by northbound oceanic eddies, however a strong south bound eddy took hold so it was decided to go with the flow, out 300 km from land and back again.
The glider is uses similar buoyancy technology to the ARGO floats which provide the essential data for ocean and climate research, as well as our daily weather forecasts.
While the ARGO floats measure temperature and salinity down to 2000m every 10 days in real time, the glider powered by 240 c cell batteries dives to 200m before relaying information to a satellite.
Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) NSW chairman Iain Suthers said Slocum’s battery power enables it to spend four weeks in the ocean collecting data which can be used to study oceanic habitat and climate change.
“This trip down the south coast has given us information on areas we never knew about.
“There is a serious challenge with climate change and these gliders will help up with.
Lindsay Macdonald from the CSIRO is one of the few underwater glider pilots in eastern Australia. On board Adrian Nute’s salvage vessel he located the glider using GPS coordinates it relayed via satellite to the main glider office in Perth.
Mr Macdonald said once they were within range they could communicate directly with the glider via a radio receiver and a lap top computer, before spotting it from the vessel.