Seabed Online

Maps and images of seabed habitat, geology and biological data in the seas around North-West Europe can now be viewed online. This resource has been created by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, in a five nation project called, The Development of a Framework for Mapping European Seabed Habitats, or MESH. Important to the project was discovering more about the processes that determine the existence of certain habitats in a particular location. These habitats are defined by a combination of unique conditions such as current, depth of water, temperature and the rock structure under the seafloor. Understanding and classifying this... (read more)

2008-01-10 09:02:14

Seabed Mapping Solutions

IXSEA launched its new seabed mapping brochure at Ocean Business 09 in Southampton today, which includes the new ECHOES 1500 Deep Tow sub-bottom profiler. "The launch of ECHOES 1500 Deep Tow at Ocean Business, a step change in sub-bottom profiler technology, demonstrates the diversity of the IXSEA product range," said IXSEA's Offshore Director Richard Parkinson. "DELPH is a powerful suite of real-time data acquisition and fully integrated processing and interpretation tools. While SHADOWS, the fourth generation side scan sonar, provides ‘more pixels per hour'." (read more)

2009-04-01 12:18:50

Seabed in Motion

How ripples and waves determine sand-grain movement

Despite its great practical importance, we still have much to learn about the transport of sand grains in the coastal environment. This mainly due to the complexity of sand transportation processes influenced by both waves and net currents like the tide. Here an overview of recently completed PhD research that yielded new insights into, and predictive models for, wave-induced sand transport over rippled beds. Coastal regions and shallow shelf seas like the North Sea are increasingly subjected to human activity. Cities, harbours and industry are situated near the coastline, and farther offshore the seabed is used for the construction of... (read more)

2008-01-01 01:00:00

Autonomous Seabed Transponder Calibration

ASV’s C-Worker 6 successfully carried out a seabed transponder calibration in 1,300m-deep waters. The sea trials, which took place in the Gulf of Mexico, were conducted in rough conditions with 2.5m waves. ASV technical sales manager Brian Anderson said that this unmanned capability could save the oil and gas industry millions of dollars. The ability to conduct precise subsea positioning in challenging conditions broadens the possible applications for C-Worker. C-Worker is the world’s first unmanned oil and gas workboat. ASV designed and built the 6m vehicle at its waterside facility in Portchester, UK. ASV has completed the build of a... (read more)

2014-06-04 09:19:10

Post-trawling Seabed Recovery

A voyage to find out what happens to seabed fauna in a deep-water trawling area if you leave it undisturbed several years got underway on 9th May 2011. The RRS James Cook set sail from Glasgow, Scotland (UK) in the direction of Rockall Trough, Rockall Bank and Hatton Basin, . The deep-water banks and basins to the northwest of the UK are rich habitats for a variety of benthic species, including sponge reefs, cold-water coral mounds and sediment communities. At the same time, those areas form important fishing grounds for an international fishing fleet, including bottom fisheries such... (read more)

2011-05-12 09:13:49

Seabed Classification Capability

Chesapeake Technology has added seabed classification to SonarWiz 5. The new functionality offers a fast and easy way to classify sea floor sediment, such as gravel and sand, for use in a wide range of sonar mapping missions including habitat studies, dredging projects, pipe and cable laying projects, and at-sea platform construction. For the military, for example, it is extremely important to know the bottom types that will allow mines or underwater improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to be buried easily and therefore hidden from side-scanning sonar. The classification map will enable military planners to select a route that avoids areas... (read more)

2011-03-01 03:33:44

Klaipeda Harbour Seabed Mapped

The Lithuanian Coastal Research and Planning Institute (CORPI) has recently completed the first ever 100% coverage survey of Klaipeda Harbour, Lithuania, using the Kongsberg GeoAcoustics GeoSwath Plus COMPACT system. This EU-funded project was carried out during the implementation of the Sustainable Management of Contaminated Sediments (SMOCS) project, developed under the framework of the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013. The work focuses on the mapping of contaminated sediments in the modern port development area. Full-scale, shallow water multibeam, sidescan sea floor imagery and seismic mapping were carried out by CORPI's staff in order to gain a full understanding of the morphology... (read more)

2013-08-19 11:20:47

Acoustic Seabed Classification

Integration into hydrographic survey programmes

Acoustic seabed classification is rapidly gaining acceptance as a useful tool amongst the world's ocean community. Commercial classification products can measure acoustic diversity in the surficial seafloor zone and produce thematic maps of the resulting acoustic classes. Hydrographic services throughout the world routinely conduct bathymetric surveys using single beam sounders and multibeam sonar. These operations are ideal candidates to serve as 'surveys of opportunity' for acquisition of acoustic classification information. The hydrographic office itself gains significantly better seafloor information for charting purposes, with the added benefit that the ocean community outside hydrography gains a new capability to manage the delicate... (read more)

2008-01-01 01:00:00

Seabed Resources and Hydrography

Exploration of seabed resources using bathymetry and geology

The seabed of the Dutch sector of the North Sea is one of most densely sampled marine areas in the world. Sampling started in the mid-1960s with the exploration of fill sand in the coastal zone. Since that time, a reconnaissance mapping programme of the entire territory has been carried out in close co-operation with the North Sea Directorate of the Dutch Ministry of Public Works and Water Management, and the Hydrographic Office (HO) of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The sample spacing varies much from north to south and from east to west, reflecting the differing relevance of various areas... (read more)

2008-01-01 01:00:00

Mapping Northwest UK Seabed

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA, UK) and six partner organisations launched the Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland Hydrographic Survey (INIS Hydro) project at the Belfast Harbour Commissioners Office on Monday 4th July 2011. INIS Hydro, which receives GBP3.2 million from the European Union's INTERREG IVA Programme, will produce a standardised hydrographic survey specification and accurate high-resolution bathymetric datasets for seven important seabed areas to the east of Ireland/Northern Ireland and off the west coast of Scotland. A total of 1400 km2 will be surveyed by the partner organisation's research vessels fitted with multibeam sonar technology. High-quality bathymetric information... (read more)

2011-07-04 10:48:21