Title Short-term observations of daily currents on the continental shelf off Natal Bight, along the east coast of South Africa at location Sez01 (December 2009 - July 2010)
Project African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP)
Authors

Gavin Louw
Oceans and Coastal Research, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE); role: Marine Scientific Technician; contact details: email: glouw@dffe.gov.za

Marcel van den Berg
Oceans and Coastal Research, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE); role: Marine Scientific Technician; contact details: email: mvdberg@dffe.gov.za

Tarron Lamont
Oceans and Coastal Research, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE); role: Marine Scientist; contact details: email: tlamont@dffe.gov.za

Publisher Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (2024)
Contributors

Contact Person: Marcel van den Berg
Oceans and Coastal Research, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE); role: Marine Scientific Technician; contact details: email: mvandenberg.dea@gmail.com

Abstract Between 2009 and 2013, multiple short-term mooring deployments were conducted to determine the oceanographic characteristics and variability along the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Bight, along the east coast of South Africa. One mooring (Sez01) was deployed off Sezela, about 79km south of Durban, at a depth of 30m, between June 2009 and July 2010. Three moorings (Dbn01, Dbn02, and Dbn03) were deployed off Durban at depths of 50m, 420m, and 570m, respectively, between January 2009 and September 2010, and two moorings (RiB01 and RiB02) were deployed off Richards Bay at depths of 30m and 580m, respectively, between February 2009 and September 2010. These moorings measured currents, as well as sub-surface and bottom temperatures across the continental shelf and along the continental slope of the KZN Bight. Here we present processed magnitude and direction of daily currents throughout the water column (4.52 - 20.52m) from an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) at location Sez01 (30.42°S; 30.69°E) on the continental shelf off Sezela, between December 2009 - July 2010.
Methods A bottom-mounted, upward-looking, 600kHz RD Instruments Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) was configured with a bin size of 2m and a blanking distance of 1m, and deployed at location Sez01 (30.42°S; 30.69°E), on the continental shelf of Sezela. The instrument measured hourly magnitude and direction throughout the water column (4.52 - 20.52m) between 07 December 2009 and 12 July 2010. These hourly values were corrected for magnetic declination, and then averaged to daily means for each depth bin. Only hourly values which showed ≥ 75% good beam data were used, and daily values were only generated for days on which there were 75% or more hourly readings.
Data
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Temporal extent 27 Dec 2009 – 12 Jul 2010
Geographic extent

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

North: -29.0
South: -31.0
West: 31.0
East: 33.0

Vertical extent Max: -20.52 m
Min: -4.52 m
Keywords ACEP III - Ecosystem Processes in the KwaZulu-Natal Bight, ADCP, currents, INDIAN OCEAN, moorings, temperature
Related resources
  • This digital object is new version of Raw ADCP data for short-term observations of currents on the continental shelf off Natal Bight, along the east coast of South Africa at location Sez01 (December 2009 - July 2010) (10.15493/DEA.MIMS.144072024)
  • This digital object is part of Short-term observations of currents and sub-surface temperatures on the continental shelf and slope along the KwaZulu-Natal Bight, along the east coast of South Africa (project period 2009-2013) (10.15493/DEA.MIMS.78072024)