StarFish Aids Search and Rescue Applications
StarFish Seabed Imaging Systems, the shallow water sidescan sonar system from Tritech (UK), has been successful in a SAR operation for body recovery. Where other sonar failed to locate the missing person, StarFish 990F’s high-resolution imagery was able to lead the rescuers to recover the body of a sailor who had drowned and had been missing for over 10 years.
Derek Flanagan, Divisional Controller of the Irish Coast Guard, commented that searching for a submerged victim can be long, frustrating and dangerous for boat teams, police and Navy divers. Using the StarFish sidescan sonar will enable the Irish Coast Guard to search large areas relatively quickly and safely, adding an extra dimension to the search team’s capability.
StarFish demonstrations at the Dublin Water Rescue Conference in October 2011 generated strong interest from the SAR community. The meeting brought together key SAR professionals as well as underwater technology companies and included Tritech, SeaBotix and the Irish Coast Guard.
StarFish is available as an entry-level system (450F), higher resolution (452F) and a higher frequency and resolution (990F) system, offering users a variety of options depending on their specifications.
StarFish systems are suited for shallow-water surveys through the application of Compressed High Intensity Radar Pulse (CHIRP) and digital-signal processing (DSP) techniques. The sonar offer plug-and-play technology, powered by StarFish Scanline software. A Software Development Kit (SDK) is also available from the StarFish website to allow ease of integration into the users' own software package.
