Subsea Tech Observer

Subsea Tech designs and manufactures a full range of mini ROV, with performances designed for each application. With lengths from 37 to 50 cm and weights from 4 to 6.5 kilograms, the underwater robots can carry out high definition video, sonar inspections and physiochemical measurements up to 150 m of water; they can be equipped with manipulators, sensors for measuring thickness (Cygnus), water / sediment samplers and a multitude of sensors depending on customer needs, thanks to their accessory plug.

Subsea Tech offers the only mini ROV in the world equipped with embedded batteries, allowing systems to operate for several hours without external power.

Subsea Tech offers LYYN Inside solutions in their product range, as well as being a dealer for LYYN stand-alone products.

Subsea Tech demonstration:

Known wrecks on the Skåne coast

Our knowledge of our marine heritage and the natural marine environment in southern Sweden is very weak.  There are of course many reasons for this lack of knowledge, but a major contributing factor is that water is an obstacle in the availability of the marine landscape. This leads to lower priority in the protection of subsea archaeological sites by the Cultural Monuments Act than sites on land.

Water, or rather the depth, has nevertheless been very positive as it has acted as a protection for the wealth of wrecks and archaeological sites. However, this has been drastically changed over the last decades because of the subsea technology development.

It is increasingly easy to both find and plunder (or in ignorance destroy) irreplaceable cultural values, while legislation, information and education is lagging behind. Due to ignorance and carelessness can tomorrow’s antiquities be gone before they pass the current one hundred year limit and are legally protected.

The overall objective of the project “Our marine heritage” (Vårt marina arv) is to demonstrate to the public, politicians and others what is happening, by focusing on the cultural values that are hidden below sea level. The aim is to provide an assessment of the future need for protection for our marine landscapes. All items below the surface are obviously not worthy of protection, but how can you determine which objects to preserve for the future if we do not know what is there or even in the condition known wrecks are?

The latest round of “Vårt marina arv” was held in the summer of 2008 in Kämpinge Bay and at Falsterbo. Read more about it at the project site (in Swedish).

Lund, Sweden, May 12, 2009

Diver by the wood structure. Photo by Michael Palmgren SEA-U

This weekend divers made unique findings in the woods outside eastern Skåne which most likely represents traces of human activities. Arne Sjöström, diver and archaeologist, has encountered a 4×2 meters wooden structure on the subsea peat banks. This unique finding is probably a big fish trap. They have also found torch and charcoal residues in the bottom layers of the mud banks, as well as very typical round stones that most certainly were used as weights for fishing nets. The archeologist’s says that everything points to that there should be dwellings nearby.

If their assumptions are correct, it will be the oldest fishing gear found on the seabed off the Swedish coast. Its age will be determined by the C 14-method in the near future, but it is suspected to be 8 000-10 000 years old.

Tree still standing after 10 000 years, cut for testing. Photo by Michael Palmgren SEA-U

The pine forest at the bottom of the sea is still not completely mapped, but it is estimated to be several square kilometers wide, extending out to at least 30 meters deep. The absence of ship worm in the Baltic Sea makes everything surprisingly well preserved, even though it is up to 10 000 years old. “The trees are almost as new when you bring them to surface, with the root system and everything intact.” says Kjell Andersson, research engineer at the Lund Institute of Technology.

Kjell Andersson is the initiator behind the “Havsresan 2009″ program where Maritime Administration, the Swedish Coast Guard, Lund University, and several other agencies and businesses work together in a multidisciplinary project. The goal is to get a better picture of the coastal seabed outside eastern Skåne. “Available charts show only a rough outline of what is out there,” says Kjell Andersson.

The sandy sea bed covering most of the remains of the forest. Photo by Michael Palmgren SEA-U

For more information contact Kjell Andersson, Engineering Geology, Lund Institute of Technology, +46 704 91 24 84, or Madeleine Lundin, project coordinator for the Marine Center, Simrishamn Municipality, +46414 81 91 24.

Comparison between un-enhanced and lyynified video:

A video from 1995 showing the sunken forest. Before lyynification was invented.

Explorers finding a shipwreck with the digital depth sounder before sending the ROV down to the wreck.

The VideoRay ROV and tether awaiting launch

‘’Welcome to the General Butler. Please dive safely. Don’t penetrate the wreck!’’

”Explore Lake Champlain’s amazing shipwrecks without getting wet!

Join Lake Champlain Shipwrecks for a unique adventure. First we cruise to the wreck site, then, while sitting above the wreck, we’ll tell you the story behind it. Next, we deploy our ROV (remotely operated vehicle) and you will be able to see the wreck on screens onboard the boat as the ROV explores the depths. This is a fun experience for everyone, regardless of age.”

Rachael Miller is running a successful tour operation in Lake Champlain, Vermont, USA. Though only the sixth largest of America’s lakes, Lake Champlain’s distinction is what it contains: arguably the nation’s largest collection of historic wooden shipwrecks.

It all started back in 1986 when New York and Vermont created the Lake Champlain Underwater Historic Preserve System to protect its fragile wrecks from anchor damage and theft, while providing access to divers. The same year, the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum set up shop at Basin Harbor and went to work collecting, documenting, and preserving what artifacts it could salvage.

A decade later, they began a 10-year sonar scan of the lake’s floor, uncovering at least 70 previously unknown wrecks. Nine are open to divers, three of them in Burlington Bay. But the sites were inaccessible to non divers.

So in 2005, husband-and-wife sailing instructors Rachael Miller and James Line expanded their Burlington boating and snow kiting business to include shipwreck tours using a VideoRay ROV. This was the second company worldwide, and the first in North America, to offer this great opportunity to the public to connect with their underwater world, and for this they received the VideoRay Best Mission Award at the VideoRay International Partners Conference in Key Largo, Florida, in November 2007.

And now (spring of 2008) they have added a new tool to give their clients an even more exciting experience, the LYYN T38. “It’s really fantastic!”, says Rachel. “Visibility in Lake Champlain can be really difficult. There are even days when the turbidity’s so bad we have to cancel the tours. Now my clients can see what’s down there and get full value for money, whatever the visibility conditions.”

The following four images are from the Burlington Bay Horse Ferry that lies shattered near Lone Rock Point. This was a horse-powered ferry (rather than one that carried horses), propelled by two horses who walked on the top of the turntable from holes in the deck on each side of the boat, like a treadmill. You can still see the gear shaft coming off of the turntable that changed the horizontal circular motion into the vertical paddle-wheel motion.

The Burlington Bay Horse Ferry

The framing and turntable

Close-up of the port side

Close up of the paddlewheel

Read the full user story [PDF] or visit www.shipwrecktour.com.

The steel car ferry Milwaukee sank in a Lake Michigan gale with all hands on October 22, 1929. At the time of it’s sinking it was a 338 foot long ferry carrying train cars and other goods across Lake Michigan. That trip is approximately 85 miles and is still done today. The sinking of the Milwaukee occurred in the early evenings hours following the ships departure into a Fall storm from the city of Milwaukee. The entire crew of 52 was lost when the boat sank only a few miles from its starting point.

In July 2008, VideoRay ROVs were used to explore this shipwreck which lies in 90 to 125 feet of water off the Wisconsin shoreline. The ROVs were able to explore the Milwaukee from end to end as well as entering several compartments.

Dr. Mark Gleason, Chief Marine Scientist and ROV expert, Pier Wisconsin-Discovery World Museum

About Discovery World Museum at Pier Wisconsin (read more on their web site)

Discovery World’s hands-on exhibits, live shows, interactive labs, S/V Denis Sullivan schooner, and aquarium combine innovation, technology, exploration, environment and fun.  Located on the beautiful Lake Michigan, Discovery World guests can enjoy a public park, amphitheater, café, dock and event facilities.

This venue serves many purposes and audiences. With many ways to customize your visit, you can entertain any group of guests.  There are interactive exhibits and hands-on lab activities for students.  Meeting spaces with technology and catering services are available for corporations and conference planners.  Guided tours are also available for large groups.

The Burrard Inlet is a vibrant ecosystem that is surrounded by a busy and heavily populated waterfront. When completed, the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre will be the last piece of a continuous horizontal habitat restoration project stretching from Vancouver Ports to Stanley Park.

Using technology provided by Roper Resources Ltd, the Vancouver Aquarium will use the ROV to conduct yearly surveys of this underwater habitat to measure the re-establishment of marine life in the Burrard Inlet.

Staff, students and volunteers at the Aquarium will be able to review the video data to record species diversity and abundance, as well as make yearly comparisons. This information helps inform scientific research and policy, and also helps us to educate the public about important issues affecting our oceans and consequently, our daily lives.

The video clip is the promotional material Vancouver Aquarium showed at the Oceans 2007 show at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre. All underwater footage is enhanced with a LYYN T38™.

Visit www.vanaqua.org to read more.

Published courtesy of Vancouver Aquarium,
©2007 Vancouver Aquarium, all rights reserved

SeaBotix LBV Crawler

“We were approx 1 km off shore and we were there to test the SeaBotix LBV150SE-5 and LBC. We were able to identify debris on the sea bed (as per the pictures), we were also able to follow the line of the Pipe, fly over and around the Plem for inspection, and follow the length of the flex to the attaching head.

During the demonstration we fly down to the pipe and land. What we did not know is that this was the chosen resting place of an Octopus, who flew off in fright as we settled down, only to return and throw us off of his pipe.

The demonstration was a good success we feel and well worth the trip to France.”

Mark Pomeroy,
Liquavision

Comparisons between original footage and LYYN enhanced:

Rovbuilder Mini 600

The Russia based company RovBuilder in cooperation with Latvia based company Eprons ROV produces series and special ordered remote operated vehicles (ROV).

We combine over 10 years of engineering experience in developing and producing ROV’s and providing underwater technical services. With this experience we currently design and build ROV’s for the professional market of underwater technology, mainly for underwater exploration, search and rescue and surveying tasks of underwater installations.

Rovbuilder Mini 300

RovBuilder’s Europen partner Eprons ROV, also LYYN dealer for Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, delivers customized RovBuilder based systems with LYYN Inside™.

For more information please visit Eprons ROV website. (www.eprons.eu)

35A Krustpils street
Riga, Latvia, LV -1073

Tel/fax: (+371) 67248877

Contact: Andrejs Cernavskis [mail]
Mobile: (+371) 26467575

web site

Craig Thorngren, Owner of Submerged Recovery & Inspection Services and Retired United States Coast Guard Chief

Retired United States Coast Guard Chief (22 years) and long time VideoRay user Craig Thorngren, who now owns and operates Submerged Recovery & Inspection Services, is a true power user of ROV’s and LYYN visibility enhancement. Craig has piloted ROV’s in some of the most challenging underwater environments with great success for his clients.

An experienced Coast Guard

Several of his postings included New York City, Miami and Seattle.  In Seattle, he was deployed with MSST Seattle (91101) in response to Hurricanes Katrina & Rita, the grounding of the cruise ship Empress of the North along with many other military out load’s in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Upon his retirement he was BlueView Technologies Field Operations and Training Supervisor.

An experienced ROV pilot and popular VideoRay trainer

Craig has more than 1500 hours piloting experience in the following operations:

• Wreck Penetration Bridge Inspections
• Hull Inspections Evidence Documentation & Recovery
• Hydro Dam Inspections Water Tank Inspections
• Port Security Inspections Archaeological Recoveries
• Deep Operations High Current Operations
• Recovery Operations

Some clips that have been lyynified afterwords (post processed) with a LYYN T38: