World First in Marine Surveying!

We've been pretty busy over the last couple of weeks - not directly on the wildlife front, but fascinating stuff .....

First of all, we were working with a team from the British Antarctic Survey assisting in the deployment of new multibeam sidescan equipment which will soon be on its way  to the Antarctic where it will be used for deep-water survey work. We spent a week caring out calibration and survey  exercises in the Firth of Lorn and Loch Etive.

Last week was spent with another group working on the Inis Hydro Project.  this is part of a £3.2m EU-funded project to complete a detailed hydrographic survey in coastal waters off Northern Ireland and the west coast of Scotland. This is being achieved by using the latest multibeam sidescan equipment which accurately maps the seabed from a moving vessel and returns critical depth measurements as well as a detailed electronic 'picture' of the sea floor. 

Many of the existing marine charts for this area were compiled using data dating back to the mid-1800's, when depth recordings were made manually from a small boat using a lead weight attached to a   line, and so there are a lot of omissions and anomalies.

The most fascinating past of the week was that we established a world-first in hydrographic survey by completing a successful multibeam survey of the Gulf of Corryvreckan - the third largest maelstrom in the world.  This is a fierce area of water lying between the islands of Jura and Scarba, classed by the UK Admiralty as 'unnavigable'.  Favourable weather conditions allowed us to make several passes through the Corryvreckan which resulted fantastic images of a previously unseen subterranean terrain.

Part of the survey work involved obtaining samples of the sea-bed to determine its make-up. This required sediment sample to be 'grabbed' from depths of over 200 metres.