Canadian Coast Guard Expands Northern Mapping Capability

The Canadian Coast Guard has chosen Kongsberg Maritime to provide high-resolution EM 712 multibeam echosounders to the Canadian Coast Guard’s medium icebreakers, CCGS Pierre Radisson and the CCGS Des Groseilliers.

Gathering critical hydrographic data can be a challenge in the Canadian Arctic. The retractable design of the EM 712 echo sounder systems optimises performance of the sounder when deployed and protects it when the vessel is breaking ice.

When deployed, the high-resolution EM 712 collects navigational and scientific data from otherwise inaccessible parts of the planet and is capable of mapping a swath of the seabed up to 3,000 metres wide in 3,600 metres of water.

The CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent and the CCGS Amundsen are each equipped with larger, ice protected, deep-water sounders from Kongsberg. The light icebreaker CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier is equipped with a retractable Kongsberg EM 2040C high resolution, shallow-water multibeam echosounder.

Kongsberg Maritime has been a supplier of multibeam echosounders and electronics to the Government of Canada since the early 1980s. Canada’s first ice-protected multibeam echosounder was installed on the research vessel CCGS Amundsen in 2003 and has been in operation for almost 14 years.