Historical development of monitoring

Manned lightships: 1872 - 1988

In the German Bight and the western Baltic Sea such measurements exist since 1872 and were carried out first on board of manned light vessels. The last manned lightship (Borkumriff) was taken out of service in 1988. Some of the old light vessels were replaced by smaller, unmanned ones ("TW Ems", "Deutsche Bucht" and "Elbe"). All measured data of the manned light vessels are archived in the BSH at the German Oceanographic Data Center (DOD).

Untitled platforms: since 1984

The deployment of unmanned platforms began in 1984. The MARNET marine environmental network was launched in 1989, initially using existing facilities. These include the unmanned light vessels and the Kiel lighthouse. But also new platforms were constructed, for example the semi-submersible buoy Nordseeboje 3. The extension of the MARNET was completed in 2003. But there were also total losses. The unmanned light vessel ELBE capsized in December 1999 in storm "Anatol" and was not replaced. Therefore measurements at this station are only available up to this point in time.