Dunedin boat owners can now recieve the latest weather information 24 hours every day by simply turning on their marine radio.  

 The newly introduced NowCasting services provides mariners with real-time informaion on weather conditions at critical locations within the VHF radio coverage area and broadcasts the updates on Channel 22.

Broadcasting from Taiaroa Head over a wide area of the Otago region, the new service provides up-to-the-minute wind strength and direction information from a range of marine coastal sites, as well as the latest marine wather forecast and the local tide times and heights.

The NowCasting service improves marine safety by providing mariners, professinal and amateur, with a continuous weather infromtion stream enabling them to make better decisions about commencing or continuing their journeys.  Wind is the most critical factor in knowing about commencing or continuing their journeys.  Wind is the most critical factor in knowing the sea conditions so Coastguard uses automatic anemometers positioned at various sites, which report wind strength and direction every sixty seconds.  The wind data is bought back to a central computer and broadcast on VHF radio within seconds of it being received.

President of Coastguard Dunedin, Lox Kellas said “We have been very fortunate in the support we have recieved to get the NowCasting service up and running in Dunedin, particularly the assistance of Port Otago Ltd for their site to house equipment at Port Chalmers as well as data from their existing wind stations in the harbour.” 

“We’ve also been granted access to The Otago Maritime VHF Association broadcast site which has been integral to establishing the service,” says Kellas.

The Dunedin service has been on air for testing for two weeks and is now fully operational.  This station joins existing broadcasts already operated by Coastguard in Northland, Auckland, Kaipara, Raglan, Whitianga, Tairua, Whakatane/Tauranga, New Plymouth, Nelson, Cook Strait and Canterbury.  The additional site has been made possible by funding assistance throgh the New Zealand Community Trust.

Coastguard volunteers from Bluff and Riverton attended the Southland Boat Show on 1st and 2nd August.  Along with Southern Region Operations Manager, Mark Whitehouse and Boating Education Field Representative, Joanne Glassford they gave the people of Southland the opportunity to find out more about Coastguard.  Coastguard Rescue Vessel ‘Russell John Chisholm’ from Riverton was there and proved a hit with visitors getting the feel for being at the helm of a rescue vessel. 

Coastguard has three units based in Southland: Coastguard Bluff, Coastguard Riverton and Coastguard Air Patrol Southland.  In the year ended 30 June 2009 the Coastguard Professional Volunteers in Southland gave 4,233 hours of service to their community.

4,000 people entered the Coastguard competition to win a 41” TV which was won by Don Hume of Garston.