Wave buoy onshore for repairs

Surfers and recreational fishermen wanting to check out the swell will need to wait a few more weeks before the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's wave buoy is back in action.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Data Services Manager Glenn Ellery said the popular wave buoy has been removed for repairs and general maintenance.

"We're addressing some communications issues we were having with the buoy. We found it had been dropping out every now and then so we are identifying why and while it's on shore we will perform some general maintenance too," Mr Ellery said.

"This will hopefully improve the quality of the information that the buoy transmits to us and in turn improve the information we can supply to the public."

The wave buoy usually sits 13km off Pukehina Beach monitoring and recording information about wave heights, water temperature and wave frequency.

When the buoy is in action this information is available at www.boprc.govt.nz.

Mr Ellery said the buoy was expected to be out of the water for a few weeks and taking it back out to sea would be weather dependent.

Updates would be posted on the Wave Buoy page on the website.