Fowey marine technology company Triskel Marine Ltd has just been awarded the coveted Spirit of Innovation Award at the Seawork International 2008 exhibition in Southampton.

The award is for the most innovative new commercial marine product of the last 12 months. The panel of judges considered 40 international entries for the prize, including two brand new commercial vessels. Despite the stiff competition, the small Cornish company came out on top.

Triskel Marine, who have offices in Fowey and Falmouth, won the prize for their DataBuoy, a new data monitoring buoy for use in ports and river estuaries. The buoy can be launched and recovered from a small boat and sends information about water quality straight to the internet. It will phone the port authorities if it detects a significant change and will call for help if it is moved or taken out of the water.

Designed for use in environmental monitoring projects and dredging programmes the buoy will help to keep our inshore waters clean, protect our shell fisheries and may also save harbours money.

Technical Director Kevin Wittamore said: “We are absolutely delighted that the judges recognised the significance of the DataBuoy. Our design turns traditional thinking on its head and allows very high quality information to be gathered simply and cheaply. We have worked on this idea for nearly two years now with the help of a small grant from SWRDA. We are particularly proud of the fact that our technology is completely Cornish. For a small Cornish company to beat strong competition from across Europe, including major ship builders, is absolutely fantastic.”

Poole harbour is already operating three of the buoys and Triskel Marine are now looking forward to more orders as a result of their success at Seawork.