Five more Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) buoys have been deployed to provide ongoing tsunami monitoring and detection information for New Zealand and Pacific countries, including Tonga. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Civil Defence Minister Peeni Henare welcomed the deployment to improve the DART buoy network.

“We are pleased to deliver a lifesaving line of defence, built from the most advanced DART buoy tsunami detection technology available, to keep New Zealanders safe,” said Mr Peters. 

He said New Zealanders were wide open to potential catastrophe by relying on reporting from a single faulty DART buoy on the blink.

“Given our place in the Pacific puts us at risk from many different tsunami sources, we had to act with serious urgency to secure our coastal regions.”

“These DART buoys will undoubtedly save lives as detecting a tsunami early allows us to provide immediate warnings through a range of communications channels including Emergency Mobile Alerts.”

In addition, Pacific Island countries will benefit from the new buoys.

"New Zealand is always among the first to offer support to our Pacific partners in the wake of a natural disaster, said Mr Peters.

“Tsunamis can be devastating for our communities, including those in the Pacific, not only due to the death and destruction they cause but through widespread economic damage that can take years to recover from.” 

The NIWA research vessel RV Tangaroa left on its month-long deployment last Friday 28 August.

Peters said that until now, New Zealand had been reliant on a single, aging DART buoy. They are now establishing a network of fifteen DART buoys to provide early detection and support warnings for tsunami gnerated from the Kermadec and Hikurangi trenches.

“The network will be completed in 2021, with the last three DART Buoys to be deployed near the New Hebrides Trench to monitor tsunami sources near New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands,” Mr Henare said.

DART buoys are deep-ocean instruments that monitor changes in sea level. They detect tsunami threats by measuring associated changes in water pressure via sea floor sensors.

According to the New Zealand government, DART buoys are the only tried and repeatedly tested technology that confirms the generation of tsunami waves before they reach the coast. They are capable of measuring sea-level changes of less than a millimetre in the deep ocean. This is particularly critical for unfelt earthquakes originating from the Kermadec trench. 

For this type of tsunami risk, without DART buoys, it is not possible to provide accurate early warnings of tsunami risk through public alerting systems like Emergency Mobile Alert.