Feds to develop new methods for underwater surveying

Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transport, and Jean Laflamme, General Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Development of Ocean Mapping (CIDCO), said that their organizations will be working together to develop a new method for underwater surveying (also known as bathymetric surveying) using floatplanes. In the coming weeks, testing under actual conditions will be conducted at sea in Rimouski to determine whether the seabed can be charted using technology that is not ship-based. The project consists of installing instruments on a floatplane, in order to determine whether airborne bathymetric surveys meet the same standards as those done conventionally from aboard ships, which could potentially achieve savings in time and money. Partners in this project are CIDCO, the Canadian Hydrographic Service, Quebec Region, in Mont-Joli, Géosphair Aviation, and RESON, a company specializing in sonar technology.