CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. (CSA) recently deployed its Advanced Diver Navigation System to conduct numerous projects with differing purposes.  The CSA system includes the Shark Navigator, a self-contained, highly portable, diver-operated mapping system with high accuracy positioning.

CSA’s Diver Navigation System is designed to give the diver complete autonomy from topside sensors or support vessels, aid in locating targets, and support seafloor feature and resource mapping.  Divers can plot pre-determined survey lines, seafloor features, resources, targets, and pipeline routes or simply map any points of interest as needed.  The computer software easily integrates with Hypack^® navigational software, allowing divers to streamline data collection and processing.  Divers are able to log the track while collecting still photographs and HD video, thereby providing exact locations of any abnormalities.  If a diver’s GPS position is lost due to water depth or wave action, the Doppler Navigation System automatically updates the position data until the GPS returns online.

Utilizing the Diver Navigation System, CSA divers conducted a detailed inspection of sewer outfall pipelines in shallow water depths normally considered inaccessible by support vessels and ROVs.  This system was also recently used to perform a benthic habitat characterization study in Key West for the U.S. Navy.  Using the on-screen navigation, divers were able to swim to pre-plotted points and transects, designate points of interest, and map the perimeter of the habitat.  The system is currently being used for a coral reconnaissance survey in Puerto Rico where a given search area has been designated proximal to pre-existing coral monitoring stations.  These monitoring stations are used to identify any of the seven proposed endangered coral species of the Atlantic and Caribbean found within the 66 Reef-building Coral Species designated by the Endangered Species Act.

The Shark Navigator is manufactured by Shark Marine Technologies Inc.  For more information on the capabilities of CSA’s Advanced Diver Navigation System as well as its other environmental services, please call us at 772-219-3000 or send us a message.