What can HF radar contribute to the salvage of a grounded ship?

The area around the grounding site of the Shen Neng 1 in Great Barrier Reef waters 0n 3 April 2010 was monitored by an HF radar and several Acoustic Doppler Profilers. The HF radar is shown to compare well with the Profilers at the mooring sites. The radar data was used to produce a time series of surface currents at the site during the grounding and throughout the subsequent salvage and clean-up. The spatial and temporal surface current maps are ideally suited for Lagrangian tracking of notional zero buoyancy water parcels starting from the grounding site. Lagrangian `parcels' were released at two-hour intervals after the grounding in order to identify locations of flotsam or spills. Releases at two-hour intervals through a tidal cycle followed similar tracks until, on the fifth day, a significant change in the meso-scale meteorology and oceanography occurred. It is shown that the meso-scale change had a stronger control on the destination of `parcels' than tides. HF radar has much to offer in nudging real-time hydrodynamic models used for predictions of currents during a maritime incident like this.