Are you an individual or company in need of a highly detailed marine survey? Ocean Discovery can offer you the services you require, be it wreck location, bottom survey and inspections or drowned victim search, we can assist you at very competitive prices.
Rental is available complete with sonar system, experienced operator and survey vessel. The sonar system is portable and can also be put to work on your vessel at your location.Our services have been acquired from all around the world with the most interesting mission being to locate the gold galleon Atorchas sister ship off of Key West Florida. For more information regarding rentals please do not hesitate to contact us.
What is side scan sonar ?
Side scan sonar works like an underwater radar and is the best tool in existence for locating shipwrecks. Regardless of visibility in the water the sound pulses penetrates hundreds of meters to each side of the sonar tow fish. An incredibly accurate and high-resolution picture of the seabed and any objects lying upon it is displayed on a computer screen. Massive areas can quickly and efficiently be surveyed. In the summer of 2001 seven new wrecks where found in one single day by the Ocean Discovery survey team thanks to side scan sonar. Side scan sonar have and will prove to be an invaluable tool for one of the main ambitions of Ocean Discovery- locate lost shipwrecks.
Side Scan Sonar is one of the most accurate systems for imaging large areas of the ocean floor. The sonar transducers (the item that fire the acoustic pulses) are mounted in a torpedo like towfish. It is somewhat similar to side locking airborne radar. Side Scan transmits an acoustic beam 90 degrees from the tow vessels path to each side. This beam propagates into the water and across the seabed. The ocean floor and any objects lying upon it, reflect some of the sound energy back in the direction of the sonar towfish. The sensitive sonar head receives these reflections, amplify them and send them to a topside sonar data processor and display. Images produced by quality sonar systems are highly accurate and can be used to delineate even very small objects. Very large object such as shipwrecks can easily be identified over long distances, typically 300-600 meters.
Side Scan Sonars are used in a variety of applications such as locating pipeline or cable routes, shipwreck location, mine hunting, downed aircraft search and lost cargo search operations.As can be seen from the images above the advantages with a Side Scan Sonar to a depth sounder are phenomenal. A depth sounder transmits its acoustic pulses straight down and you can only see a small slice of the seabed at a time. The problem with a depth sounder is that it only "sees" a wreck when the boat is directly overhead. You've got to run right over it. This is like walking trough a shopping mall with your vision restricted to the field of view beneath your feet. Anyone that have been involved in a search for a lost shipwreck knows how time consuming it can be, if not impossible.
With a Side Scan Sonar you can "see" hundreds of meters to each side of the towfish with incredible detail. The acoustic signal is transmitted along a 180-degree swath to both sides, from the horizontal plane to the bottom. As the featured writer Garry Gentile put it "now we can see the shopping mall with both eyes wide open and peripheral vision optimised by head turning". Even very large search areas can quickly and efficiently be covered. Wrecks that were previously infeasible to look for due to uncertain positions are now possible to find.
Many manufacturers offers Side Scan Sonars, the common attribute is a very high price. The system Ocean Discovery have acquired is state of the art with a digital topside unit. The towfish operates at 330khz, which enables a very high resolution. Surveys down to a depth of 150 meters are possible. The towfish has a swath of 600m that (300m to each side of the towfish)