(Falmouth, MA) The first McLane manufactured Prawler was deployed in Puget Sound, Seattle, WA, marking a key milestone in McLane’s technology transfer with NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL).
McLane and NOAA PMEL engineers were on board the R/V Hayes in late October 2019 to observe the 180m deployment in Shilshole Bay as near real-time Prawler data was successfully transmitted to NOAA’s facilities in Seattle, WA. The deployment and data transmission will continue for several months.
The successful deployment of the McLane-built Prawler validated the final phase of the technology transfer between McLane and NOAA/PMEL. The Prawler is a proven technology that has been field tested by PMEL over many years in the Arctic and tropical Pacific Ocean. Now, the McLane Prawler is ready to continue that field success.
“The Prawler has an elegantly simple design that really makes it easy to deploy,” says McLane Engineering Manager Tim Shanahan. “The instrument’s compact size makes for easy attachment to the mooring line. The Prawler will be a great option for researchers looking to profile the upper 500m of the water column.”
The Prawler technology transfer is part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between NOAA/PMEL and McLane.
The Prawler is a low-cost, wave-actuated vehicle that moves along the mooring wire, collecting data that can be transmitted in near real-time from the surface to 500m of the water column. Data can include conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD), optical backscatter, and dissolved oxygen.
McLane manufactures time-series in situ oceanographic instrumentation for scientific deployments in the open ocean, and freshwater environments. Learn more about the Prawler and our three main oceanographic product lines: profilers, samplers and flotation, at mclanelabs.com.
See the Prawler on display at Oceanology International March 17-19 Stand A525 Excel Centre, London.
