Underwater acoustics follow Gulf oil spill
Kongsberg Maritime echo sounders have played their part in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill containment and are being used on NERC’s new ‘RRS Discovery’.
Kongsberg Maritime acoustic products have been used as tools to monitor the damage following the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
The vessels from America’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which monitored the distribution of the oil flow after the leakage began all had Kongsberg acoustic systems.
The Gulf of Mexico spill brought several research ships on what had previously been separate missions together for the assignment. These vessels, from the NOAA hydrographic fleet, included R/V Thomas Jefferson and R/V Nancy Foster as well as vessels from NOAA Fisheries which included R/V Henry Bigelow, R/V Pisces, R/V Gordon Gunter, R/V Oregon II and R/V Delaware II, along with university research vessels, all used Kongsberg echosounders.
Their assignment was to map natural seeps and determine the presence of oil in the water column. Kongsberg’s research echosounders were pushed to the limit and provided critical information to the scientists to assess and monitor the damage caused by the spill. Although the Deepwater Horizon well has been capped, the research and assessment studies will continue for a very long time.
Kongsberg has also recently signed a contract with Freire Shipyard for the supply of a comprehensive integrated systems package to be installed aboard an advanced research vessel currently under construction at the Spanish Vigo yard for the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
The new vessel is being built as a high technology replacement for NERC's RRS Discovery, which has been in service since the early 1960s. The new 100m vessel, also called RRS Discovery, has been designed by Skipsteknisk AS in Norway and is due for completion in the summer of 2013, at a total project cost of £75m. Within the scientific community, the new RRS Discovery is seen as state of the art in terms of design and functionality.
A suite of hydroacoustic instruments accounts for approximately 80% of the Kongsberg Maritime system destined for the new RRS Discovery.
‘We have provided systems to many of the most advanced research vessels, and in conjunction with technically oriented organisations like NERC, we have developed a wealth of knowledge on research systems and integration’,said Peter Bennett, Kongsberg sales manager for Hydrography in the UK and Ireland. ‘By drawing on this extensive experience from previous projects and by working in partnership with NERC, the RRS Discovery will become a highly sophisticated and effective tool for scientific research.’
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