Deep‑Water Sensor Recovery and Redeployment in the Florida Straits - summer 2024

In June-July 2024, C-Streams colleagues from the UK and the US completed a successful field campaign in the Florida Straits to collect instrumentation deployed at the very start of the Gulf Stream. The team travelled out of and into Miami to recover a suite of deep‑water biogeochemical sensors measuring pCO₂, pH, nitrate, temperature, salinity, oxygen, and ocean currents (ADCP) that had been in the water since the previous year.

Recovery of sensor frame in Florida Straits in June 2024. Photo credit: Pete Brown

During the operation, the team noted that the main Stablemoor buoyancy at the top of one of the moorings showed clear signs of a suspected shark bite, adding an unexpected twist to the recovery.

Recovered Stablemoor buoyancy Photo credit: Pete Brown

Following retrieval, the instruments were serviced and refurbished before being redeployed in the same deep‑water location for a further 12‑month period. These unprecedented high resolution long‑term observations will provide invaluable insight into the changing biogeochemistry and physical dynamics of one of the world’s most important ocean currents.