Simple or Complex???

[n4rj]

I would like to locate a 62 foot shrimp boat someone sunk last year.
It was towed to 45 feet of water adn scuttled to avoid the expense of doing it on land I understand. A person gave me the GPS coordinates but we have searched for it 3 or 4 times.
I trust the original numbers(GPS) but understand that it could have drifted a mile from these after sinking and could be hard to find.
I would like to locate this for fishing purposes as it would be advantageous since there is nothing within miles, but it is close to land.
Other than some semi-organized criss cross searches with Fish Finding devices( the cone angles are covering about 14-15' at this depth I imagine) is there a magnetic device or rentable sonar that would be practical?
Or , should I just save my energy adn gas adn forrget this.
I know this is not simple, is it too comples?

N4RJ?
USA

[Richard Lundgren]

Hi,

If your information and positions are correct it should be easy to find a 62 foot target using a side scan sonar. If it would be economical is a separate thing. Renting these systems can be expensive. It should however not take more than one day to find the target.

Take care
Richard Lundgren

[Ingemar Lundgren]

You can try the local fishermen. Someone might have gotten there nets or trawls stuck in the wreck and noted the position. That is the most economical approach. It is possible to find it with an echo sounder but if it may have drifted a mile in unknown direction it could take a long time. You should try to check what direction it might have drifted somehow.

A side scan will probably do the job in a few hours but it could be expensive to rent.

[n4rj]

I got the numbers from a friend who scuttled the boat and took the exact GPS numbers. It is in 40' of water and about 7 miles off shore.
It would be a great fishing asset.
I have gotten several numbers from local Shrimpers which helped in a lot of cases.
N4RJ

[Ingemar Lundgren]

You should then be able to locate it with a good fish finder. Just plan the search properly and do sweeps 15m apart or so. A chart ploter helps keeping track of things. Good luck.

[vardakas]

Greetings all,

At this point, I'd like to ask if a bathymeter would be just enough to locate the wreck given the sharp depth changes revealed by its figure? My thought is when scanning a bottom where sharp depth changes do not occur and the overall scanning process reveals a rather smooth bottom morphology, how misleading this could be proved?

Best,

Nikos Vardakas
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[Peter Tuvesson]

Hi Nikos, I got curious after reading your post and would like to learn what you mean by bathymeter?

I did not know what the term bathymetry meant so I looked it up an this is my conclusion:

Since the definition of bathymetry is "the measurement of water depth at various places in a body of water; also : the information derived from such measurements" according to Meriam- Webster and is a method to perform sea floor topography studies one must consider sidescan sonar and ecco sounders and all other instruments that can describe the sea floor to be bathymeters, did you have a specific instrument in mind?

Is my conclusion wrong?

Regards,

Peter

[vardakas]

Hello Peter,

I?m glad that we both referred to the same source for the definition of bathymeter.
No, I have got any specific measurement device in mind since I lack the expertise and experience.
I have broadly referred to the common instrument used by numerous boats including RIB?s here in Greece when sailing. These instruments consist of a navigation aid when sailing into unknown waters and onshore zone.
My only ?expertise? on the subject comes from the interest in Ocean Engineering and Sea-floor mapping technology at a theoretical level. So, I have read once about the Swath Bathymetry Systems and the Interferometry. Is this a particular type of a sidescan-sonar?

Best,
Nikos Vardakas
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