The research boat was piloted the boat under the Gold Coast Highway bridge and the MB1 used to identify scouring and sand ripples in the sea floor. David said that the water was very shallow at around 2 metres, however, the versatility of the MB1 showed that it was a useful tool for operating in the Southport area. David said that much of the development work for the MB1 had been undertaken on the Mississippi River where the MB1 had revealed significant movement of sand ridges down the river “The sand ridges in the Mississippi could move up to 20m per day “said David ” the information provided by the MB1 was very useful for understanding sand movements in the river and perhaps could be used in a similar way for research at Southport and on the Gold Coast”.

Significant erosion of Gold Coast beaches by storm activity points to the need to more closely study sand movements in the Southport area and tools such as the MB1 are ideal for providing fast and accurate surveys to support analysis of environmental activity.