Multibeam Upgrade for Celtic Explorer
An earlier multibeam sounder aboard the research vessel, Celtic Explorer, has been replaced by a Kongsberg EM 2040 system in readiness for major seabed mapping studies offshore.
The studies will take place off the coast of County Galway, Clare and West Cork as part of the national Infomar (Integrated Mapping for the Sustainable Development of Ireland’s Marine Resource) project.
Installation of the system, which was carried out by P&O Maritime assisted by Moony Boats of Killybegs, followed a series of successful bathymetric trials at Teelin Knoll, Donegal.
Celtic Explorer later headed for Newfoundland and Labrador on 12 April for a 13-day expedition across the Atlantic to St Johns as part of a fourth multi-institution transatlantic survey involving a team of Irish scientists and students working alongside specialists from the Fisheries & Marine Institute of Memorial University, Newfoundland.
The collaborative venture is part of an Atlantic Ocean Cooperation agreement signed at the Marine Institute last year by the EU, Canada and the US Oceanography and deep scattering acoustic layers of water columns using multi-frequency acoustics were among planned mission studies.
By David Goodfellow
