The contract covers annual surveys of all main dock areas as well as the feeder canal and some six miles of the River Avon. Fathoms says it has already completed the first tranche using its new survey craft, Elliann. Since the enclosed nature of the docks within the city and the terrain through which the Avon flows hindered the use of conventional navigation techniques, it was necessary to adopt Differential GPS methods of positioning. The company adds that this first swathe survey, carried out with a SEA Series 2000 interferometric system, is the most detailed so far produced for Bristol City Council.

The Bristol contract follows recent completion of a six-month survey project by Fathoms in Scotland on behalf of Highlands & Islands Enterprises for the proposed European Marine Energy Test Centre, involving detailed seabed mapping of three areas in and around Hay Sound, Orkney.