A new set of cameras high on the hills will improve safety and response time to call-outs for the team trusted to keep watch over Nelson’s harbour.
Three cameras are now in place, giving crystal clear views of the harbour and Tasman Bay.
Nelson harbourmaster Stu Whitehouse says two of the cameras will be available for public to view, with the third one for use by the harbourmaster team.
“It’s really exciting, it’s been a long time coming to get the stars to align,” says Stu of the project.
He says not only will the cameras help the public when deciding whether to head out paddleboarding, kayaking or boating, it will help in emergencies.
“We can pick out a head bobbing in the water in the blind channel,” he says of the camera’s quality. “All the jobs that come in, we can quickly have a look instantly,” he says.
He says the cameras have already assisted in calls about a possible break-down of a boat and a flare sighting off the coast of Kaiteriteri which turned out to be a helicopter.
“We can play back over 30 days, and the call from Kaiteriteri about a white flare sighting, which is not normally a distress signal, we could comfortably say within 10 minutes that it was a helicopter.”
He says the cameras will not only help the harbour team but also Coastguard and police.
The two publicly available cameras take a screen grab every minute, not quite real time but close to it, Stu says.
“We can identify a vessel pretty much anywhere between here and Kaiteriteri and even nighttime is pretty crystal clear.”
The cameras were installed with funding from Maritime NZ and will be maintained from the harbourmaster budget.
The cameras are expected to be viewable to the public online within the next few weeks here.
