Phuket tsunami warning buoy to be replaced

[webfact]

Phuket tsunami warning buoy to be replaced
Suthicha Sirirat


The tsunami warning buoy is seen aboard the MV SEAFDEC after it arrived in Phuket yesterday.

PHUKET: -- The National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC) has decided to replace an errant tsunami warning buoy in the Indian Ocean after deciding that repairing it would not be worthwhile.

The buoy, a Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) buoy, was found to be out of position, and was not communicating information as it was supposed to. It was recovered by the MV SEAFDEC, which belongs to the Samut Prakan-based Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre.

Gp Capt Somsak Kawsuwan, Director of the NDWC, told The Phuket News yesterday, after the buoy had been brought back to Phuket, that it was not clear how it got out of position. However, it had been decided to replace it.

The new buoy will be positioned at the end of this month or the beginning or February. It takes three or four days to reach the site, which is around 1,000 km from Phuket.

The cost of the buoy – and of taking it out to the site and anchoring it – is expected to be B21 million. The buoy has a usable life of about two years after which it will have to be replaced again.

He added that there are two more functioning warning buoys in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Thailand, so people can be confident that an effective watch is still being kept for signs of an incoming tsunami.

The three buoys are part of a network of six buoys and 25 seismographic stations in the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System, all aimed at detecting and measuring earthquakes and sea movements to alert countries around the Indian Ocean of a possible tsunami.

India has a further four DART buoys in the Indian Ocean, but these have been the target of theft by fishermen who take parts from them, believing there may be precious metal they can sell, or who steal the anchors that hold them in place.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-tsunami-warning-buoy-to-be-replaced-44271.php


-- Thai PBS 2014-01-28

[SOTIRIOS]

....so in other words it has been a sham for the longest of times....

...and how long to install a replacement....working or not.....

....who got paid...and how much....for this dud....

...and people are counting on this to save their lives....

...so what is the value of a tourist life after all....

[keestha]

I am subscribed to a tsunami warning text message system, it is German based. When wherever in the world an earthquake occurs which could generate a tsunami, I receive a text message. Unfortunately the system cannot be programmed only to send out a text message when something could happen in a specific region, so it can happen that I am woken up by a text message alerting about a possible tsunami in Antarctica.

[simon43]

Out of interest, I researched information about the DART tsunami buoy system and hardware. what was interesting is that whilst the buoy battery life is in excess of 2 years, the estimated life of the buoy itself is only 1 year, according to the manufacturer's specification.

This seems a very short period of time, bearing in mind the purchase cost of the buoy and additional shipping costs to install it in the middle of the Indian Ocean.