Birthday Buoy! Celebrating one year of the Spurn wave buoy deployment

June 2025 marks the first anniversary of the wave buoy deployed 3km southeast of Spurn Point, as part of the Humber Strategic Monitoring Programme.
The buoy fills a crucial gap in the North Sea’s monitoring network, positioned between the Hornsea buoy to the north and the Chapel Point buoy to the south. We’ve worked closely with the National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes and their contractors, as well as the National Oceanography Centre, and the Humber Harbour Authority, ABP, to develop and deliver this project.

Over the past year, the buoy has been hard at work, collecting vital data on:

🌊 Wave height, length and direction
🌡️ Sea surface temperature

This data helps us identify short-term variations in the sea state, and longer-term trends in the wave climate at the mouth of the estuary, providing insights we can integrate into technical assessments and monitoring.
Importantly, this data will help us better understand the critical role played by Spurn Point – the iconic sand and shingle spit that stretches south from the Holderness coast into the Humber – in shielding the estuary from the full brunt of North Sea waves.

🔗 Want to dive deeper? Check out the links below to find out more about the monitoring programme, Spurn Point, and how the landscape has changed over time.
Images courtesy of Fugro 2024