The ocean current monitoring equipment for the CAPTOR project was all deployed successfully from the ACEP vessel Phakisa on Friday 14th September, off the coast of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. The NOAA current drifters were deployed in about 800m of water, and also in about 380m of water. The two gliders provided by CSIR’s GINA project were also deployed in about 380m water depth, and have done several dives, measuring temperature, oxygen and salinity. This equipment has moved south quickly, especially the deep current drifter, helped by the Agulhas Current. The smaller Microstar drifters were deployed in shallower water, at 50m and 30m depths – these moved inshore quickly, pushed by onshore currents and wind, and beached south of Sodwana after about 6 hours. They were retrieved and re-deployed in deeper water 6km offshore of Sodwana; they moved quite rapidly north and are in the vicinity of Black Rock.
