The Creation of the Blue Hole 3D Sonar Map
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The Creation of the Blue Hole 3D Sonar Map

Aquatica Submarines is celebrating a highly successful expedition to the Blue Hole of Belize. Spending almost three weeks onsite from 27 November to 13 December 2018, the team was able to safely conduct over 20 dives taking a variety of people down to experience its splendour.

The world was able to share in this experience through a two-hour live broadcast from the Blue Hole on The Discovery Channel that featured Sir Richard Branson, Fabien Cousteau and Aquatica’s Chief Pilot, Erika Bergman. The team also supported the production of a forthcoming documentary featuring the expedition by INE Entertainment, to be released in late spring 2019.

3D-sonar map of Blue Hole

Using Aquatica’s Stingray submarine and the Roatan Institute of Deepsea Exploration’s (R.I.D.E.) Idabel Submarine, the team was able to explore the reaches of the Blue Hole and capture extensive imagery and video footage. Another key outcome of the expedition was the creation of a complete 3D sonar map of the Blue Hole. This historic accomplishment was achieved with the support of expedition partner Kongsberg using surface and submarine-mounted sonar equipment.

The view the map provides is enhanced with other passive submarine-collected environmental data from the Blue Hole. Once processed and collated, this data will be shared with the Government of Belize and the larger global scientific community as a legacy from the expedition.

“The Expedition’s successes really mean that we were able to show the magic of the Blue Hole to the world and reinforce the messages of all the expedition members that we must continue to work diligently to conserve our world’s oceans for future generations”, said Harvey Flemming, president of Aquatica Submarines.

Learn more by reading the blog post from Richard Branson here and one from Erika Bergman of Aquatica here that provide more details.

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