Skip to main content
Home

Information for:

  • Alumni
  • Applicants
  • Current Students
  • Staff
  • Parents
  • Job Vacancies
  • Covid-19
  • Cymraeg
My country:

Main Menu

    • Study Options
      • Study Home
      • Why Study at Bangor?
      • Undergraduate Study
      • Postgraduate Taught Study
      • Postgraduate Research
      • Part-time Courses
      • January Start Courses
      • Degree Apprenticeships
      • Study Abroad
      • Work Experience
    • Study Advice
      • Apply
      • Already Applied?
      • Fees and Finances
      • Scholarships and Bursaries
      • Get Ready for University
    • Explore Bangor
      • Open Days and Visits
      • Virtual Student Experience

    Find a Course

    Order a Prospectus

    • Student Life
      • Student Life Home
      • Bangor and the Area
      • Social Life and Entertainment
      • Accommodation
      • Clubs and Societies
      • Sport
      • Virtual Student Experience
    • Your Experience at Bangor
      • Student Support
      • Skills and Employability
      • Study or Work Abroad
      • Fees and Finances

    Student Profiles

    Student Videos and Vlogs

    • Choose Bangor
      • International Home
      • Why Bangor?
      • Location
      • Accommodation
      • Student Support
      • Contact Us
    • Apply
      • Entry Requirements
      • Tuition Fees and Scholarships
      • How to Apply
      • Already Applied
      • Study Abroad
      • Exchanges

    Country Specific Information

    Join us on a Virtual Open Day

    Bangor University International College

    Covid-19 Information

    • Research
      • Research Home
      • About Our Research
      • Research in our Academic Schools
      • Research Institutes and Centres
      • Research Portal
      • Research, Innovation and Impact Office (RIIO)
      • Energy
      • Research News
    • Postgraduate Research Opportunities
      • Postgraduate Research
      • Doctoral School
    • Events and Training Opportunities
      • Researcher Development
    • The University
      • About Us
      • Our Mission
      • Strategy 2030
      • Annual Review
      • Our Location
      • Academic Schools and Colleges
      • Services and Facilities
      • Vice Chancellor’s Office
      • Working with Business
      • Working with the Community
      • Sustainability
      • Health and Wellbeing
      • Contact Us
    • Working for Us
      • Job Vacancies
    • University Management and Governance
      • Policies and Procedures
      • Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
      • Management and Governance
    • University and the Community
      • Pontio
      • Sports Facilities
      • Conference Facilities
      • Places to Eat and Drink
      • Public Events
      • Widening Access
      • Services to Schools
    • Business Services
      • Business Services Home
    • Collaboration Hub
      • Collaboration Hub
      • Funding for Collaborative Research and Development (R&D) & Innovation
      • Business Facilities and Networks
      • Consultancy, Specialist Expertise and Knowledge
      • Commercialisation and Intellectual Property (IP)
      • Student Placements and Internships in Business & Enterprise
      • Training and Continuing Professional Development
      • Degree Apprenticeships
    • Conferencing and Business Dining
      • Conferencing Facilities
      • Business Dining
    • Contacts
      • Research, Innovation and Impact Office (RIIO)
      • Get In Touch
    • News
      • Current News
      • Research News
      • Student News
    • Events
      • Events

    • Study Options
      • Study Home
      • Why Study at Bangor?
      • Undergraduate Study
      • Postgraduate Taught Study
      • Postgraduate Research
      • Part-time Courses
      • January Start Courses
      • Degree Apprenticeships
      • Study Abroad
      • Work Experience
    • Study Advice
      • Apply
      • Already Applied?
      • Fees and Finances
      • Scholarships and Bursaries
      • Get Ready for University
    • Explore Bangor
      • Virtual Open Days and Visits
      • Virtual Student Experience

    Find a Course

    Order a Prospectus

    • Student Life
      • Student Life Home
      • Bangor and the Area
      • Social Life and Entertainment
      • Accommodation
      • Clubs and Societies
      • Sport
      • Virtual Student Experience
    • Your Experience at Bangor
      • Student Support
      • Skills and Employability
      • Study or Work Abroad
      • Fees and Finances

    Student Profiles

    Student Videos and Vlogs

    • Choose Bangor
      • International Home
      • Why Bangor?
      • Location
      • Student Support
      • Contact Us
    • Apply
      • Entry Requirements
      • Tuition Fees and Scholarships
      • How to Apply
      • Already Applied
      • Study Abroad
      • Exchanges

    Country Specific Information

    Join us on a Virtual Open Day

    Bangor University International College

    Covid-19 Information

    • Research
      • Research Home
      • About Our Research
      • Research in our Academic Schools
      • Research Institutes and Centres
      • Research Portal
      • Research, Innovation and Impact Office (RIIO)
      • Energy
      • Research News
    • Postgraduate Research Opportunities
      • Postgraduate Research
      • Doctoral School
    • Events and Training Opportunities
      • Researcher Development
    • The University
      • About Us
      • Our Mission
      • Strategy 2030
      • Annual Review
      • Our Location
      • Academic Schools and Colleges
      • Services and Facilities
      • Vice Chancellor’s Office
      • Working with Business
      • Working with the Community
      • Sustainability
      • Health and Wellbeing
      • Contact Us
    • Working for Us
      • Job Vacancies
    • University Management and Governance
      • Policies and Procedures
      • Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
      • Management and Governance
    • University and the Community
      • Pontio
      • Sports Facilities
      • Conference Facilities
      • Places to Eat and Drink
      • Public Events
      • Widening Access
      • Services to Schools
    • Business Services
      • Business Services Home
    • Collaboration Hub
      • Collaboration Hub
      • Funding for Collaborative Research and Development (R&D) & Innovation
      • Business Facilities and Networks
      • Consultancy, Specialist Expertise and Knowledge
      • Commercialisation and Intellectual Property (IP)
      • Student Placements and Internships in Business & Enterprise
      • Training and Continuing Professional Development
      • Degree Apprenticeships
    • Conferencing and Business Dining
      • Conferencing Facilities
      • Business Dining
    • Contacts
      • Research, Innovation and Impact Office (RIIO)
      • Get In Touch
    • News
      • Current News
      • Research News
      • Student News
    • Events
      • Events

Information for:

  • Alumni
  • Applicants
  • Current Students
  • Staff
  • Parents
  • Job Vacancies
  • Covid-19
My country:

Search

Close

Breadcrumb

  • Cymraeg

Share this page:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Historic wrecks to assist Wales’ marine renewable energy future

An image from a multibeam sonar survey of an area approximately ten miles northwest of Bardsey Island reveals the wreck of the U-87 which was lost with all 43 hands on Christmas Day 1917.  An image from a multibeam sonar survey of an area approximately ten miles northwest of Bardsey Island reveals the wreck of the U-87 which was lost with all 43 hands on Christmas Day 1917. Historic wrecks around Wales’ coastline, such as that of a German submarine sunk 10 miles off Bardsey Island at the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula on Christmas Day 1917, are to play a part in assisting Wales’ growing marine renewable energy sector.

Over the next two years, marine scientists from Bangor University will be surveying the coast of Wales as part of the ERDF-funded SEACAMS2 project led by the University in partnership with Swansea University. The researchers at Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences and Centre for Applied Marine Sciences are undertaking collaborative research, including marine surveys, to support the sustainable growth of the marine renewable energy sector in Wales. 

The marine renewable energy (MRE) sector is developing technologies to capitalise on Wales’ excellent wave and tidal resource, to create sustainable energy. The researchers intend to include surveys of shipwrecks located around the Welsh coast as models for what might happen to any structures placed in the same or similar areas of the seabed.

Sonar images of the historic wrecks, taken from the University’s research vessel, Prince Madog, will reveal how the tides and currents have removed or deposited sediments around the wrecks on the seabed. The oceanographers can learn how the presence of structures on the seabed can change how sediments are carried in the water or deposited, and over what sort of timescales.

One of the lead researchers on the project, Dr Michael Roberts of the School of Ocean Sciences explained:

“It is well understood that submerged structures such as wrecks and MRE devices will affect the flow of water around themselves, depending on the design of the structure, as well as the strength and direction of the tidal flow and the type of seabed on which they sit. There are ways to model such effects but as with all such techniques, you need observational data to help validate and refine these models so that they can provide crucial information to the marine renewable energy sector at finer scales and over longer timeframes. It is hoped that the data will also improve our understanding of marine processes across a range of sites throughout Welsh waters and provide developers with answers to some basic but very important questions.” 

He added:

“Colleagues are also examining how these structures can effectively act as artificial reefs influencing, for example, whether they attract an increased numbers of fish and how different materials influence bio-fouling.  It is hoped that this research will also support the sector in terms of designing infrastructure and developing effective and efficient monitoring systems and strategies to better understand the relationships between marine life and engineering structures on the seabed over time.”    

This research will also greatly benefit the heritage and tourism sectors in Wales by enhancing our understanding and appreciation of Wales’ extremely rich maritime history, associated with major conflicts of the twentieth century. 

The results of these surveys are already providing Bangor scientists with images of previously unexplored seabed at an unprecedented level of detail such as this area which includes the wreck of the U-87 which was lost with all 43 hands on Christmas Day 1917.  The German submarine was rammed by a British naval vessel shortly after it had sunk a cargo vessel nearby.  It is anticipated that results from such work will contribute to the overall aims and objectives of the potential HLF funded project ‘Commemorating the forgotten U-boat war around the Welsh coast 1914-18: Exploration, Access and Outreach’ led by RCAHMW.

Deanna Groom, the Royal Commission’s Senior Investigator (Maritime) said:

“We’re really thankful for the surveys which Bangor University are undertaking. They are allowing us - for the first time in perhaps 100 years- to actually see the relicts of the Great War as fought at sea just off our own coast.  These are the underwater, out-of-sight memorials, rarely visited, poignant, thought-provoking, resonate reminders of the cost in lives of the life during the wartime.  Encounters between merchant ships and enemy submarines, such as U-87, are by far the greatest cause of the 170 losses in Welsh waters –that is, in comparison to losses caused by ships setting off contact mines. Each site has a moving story of its own which we are hoping to explore and retell, with the help of the museums and archives of Wales, as part of our partnership project.”

See also this story from  the Royal Commissionon the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. 

See also:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45676923

Publication date: 8 September 2018

Home

  • News
    • Latest News
    • News Archive
    • Events
Home

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn

Bangor University

Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG, UK

+44 (0)1248 351151

Contact Us

Visit Us

Maps & Directions

Policy

  • Legal Compliance
  • Modern Slavery Act 2015 Statement
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy and Cookies
  • Welsh Language Policy
Map

Bangor University is a Registered Charity: No. 1141565

© 2020 Bangor University