Expedition Yacht Deploys Falcon as a 'Rescue Robot'
an eventing suite. It also comes with both a three jaw and a five-function manipulator, each with rope cutters, along with hydraulic cable cutter and rotary cleaning brush.Although the Falcon’s key role is recovery of Dapple’s submersible, for general diving safety the Falcon can survey a dive site beforehand, then watch over a diver when below and transport items back and forth during a dive.Image courtesy Saab Seaey
Face Masks Adding to Sea Pollution
The coronavirus pandemic is adding a new unwelcome element to sea pollution off the town of Bauan, a popular dive site in the Philippines' Batangas province.Regular visitors and locals have reported a rise in the number of face masks and PPE shields being collected from the seabed."It might be because some people who get on the boat just loop their masks on one end and it comes off, or others just do not throw them away properly," said Arnel Vergara, a Filipino professional diver who has been diving in the area for the past decade.Carmela Sevilla, a resort owner and diving instructor
New Recordings of Ultrasonic Seal Calls Hint at Sonar-like Abilities
I’m sitting on the edge of a hole drilled through 15 feet of Antarctic sea ice, about to descend into the frigid ocean of the southernmost dive site in the world. I wear nearly 100 pounds of gear – a drysuit and gloves, multiple layers of insulation, scuba tank and regulators, lights, equipment, fins and over 40 pounds of lead to counteract all that added buoyancy.I do a final check with my dive buddies: Air? Hoses? Weights? Then, one by one, we put in our mouthpieces, plop into the hole and sink out of sight into the dark.As we frog-kick along, following our lights toward the work site
Saab Seaeye Cracks into the Superyacht Security Market
for recovering items from the seabed, with other tools added as needed. Tools such as rope cutters for severing 15mm rope and 12mm steel wire rope, powerful manipulators and cleaning systems for keeping critical fittings clear.Diver safety is a key benefit. As a dive buddy, a Falcon can survey a dive site and then watch over the diver when below. It can also transport items back and forth during a dive.A Falcon can watch over a diver and survey a site before a dive. (Saab Seaeye
WASSP Updates S Series Multibeam Sonar
WASSP Multibeam has announced the release of two new firmware updates, CDX 4.0 and DRX 6.0, for its S Series multibeam sonar systems designed for the survey market, including dredging, dive site profiling, wreck hunting and many other survey activities.These updates will add a number of new functions to WASSP systems currently in use and, in most cases, can be installed by the user free-of-charge.A new Compensation Control adjusts for sea temperature and salinity, ensuring that the seafloor remains flat irrespective of different absorption losses in the water column.Whether using CDX or a third-party
Oil Removed from WWII Era Shipwreck
their four-point moor over ex-Prinz Eugen.Each oil-filled, accessible tank was hot tapped, pumped free of recoverable oil, and sealed with a permanent, tamper-proof dome assembly to prevent any subsequent leakage of residual oil clingage left in the tank. These actions ensured that the wreck, a popular dive site, is safe for continued recreational diving and the Atoll is safe from the risk of significant oil spill from ex-Prinz Eugen."This project was an incredible opportunity to showcase the U.S. Navy Salvage community's capabilities. SUPSALV had prior experience with sunken vessel oil removal
The Hunt for the Notorious U-Boat UB-29
territorial waters. He’s another of Termote’s old friends, not to mention a maritime history buff. So when Termote went down for the first time last June, maritime police were standing by and coastal radar had been alerted; a 1,000-foot exclusion zone kept commercial shipping from the dive site. “In the first half-minute, I knew it was a German UB II-class submarine,” remembers Termote. “After 30 U-boats, you just feel it. I can’t describe the elation I felt when I came up.”Termote made six dives that summer. The submarine was indeed a UB Class II U-boat
Navy Divers to Have Automated Logging from Worn Dive Computers
,” said Jason Payne, TechSolutions acting program manager.The SBDA 100 is a software application on a ruggedized tablet used to log, compute and accurately compile dive-profile data.The data, collected from a wrist watch that divers wear during operations called a Navy Diver Computer, includes dive site conditions, equipment used by the divers, dive events, such as, when a diver left the surface or left the bottom of the ocean floor, and if the dive required decompression stops. SBDA 100 syncs this information and automatically uploads it to DJRS.“For years, I witnessed how many hours it
iXblue Equips Manned Submersible for Titanic Mission
;With iXblue our pilot can safely navigate around shipwrecks because we know almost exactly where we are. Plus, the location is sent to the surface, so the operations crew can track our location in real time. The accuracy of the location data also allows the dive team to better track the areas of the dive site that have already been scanned or filmed, eliminating redundant scans and reducing the risk of missing key images of the wreck.”iXblue’s unique strap-down Fiber-Optic Gyroscope (FOG) technology, Phins 6000 subsea Inertial Navigation System (INS) provides accurate position, heading,
February 2024
