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Maritime

Canadian Coast Guard Expands Northern Mapping Capability

  • Kongsberg Maritime EM 712 high resolution multibeam echo sounders selected for Canadian icebreakers
The Canadian Coast Guard has chosen Kongsberg Maritime to provide high resolution EM 712 multibeam echo sounders to the Canadian Coast Guard's medium icebreakers, CCGS PIERRE RADISSON and the CCGS DES GROSEILLIERS.

Gathering critical hydrographic data can be a challenge in the Canadian Arctic. The innovative, retractable design of the new EM 712 echo sounder systems optimises performance of the sounder when deployed and protects it when the vessel is breaking ice.

When deployed, the high-resolution EM 712 collects valuable navigational and scientific data from otherwise inaccessible parts of the planet and is capable of mapping a swath of the seabed up to 3,000 meters wide in 3,600 meters of water.

The CCGS LOUIS S. ST-LAURENT and the CCGS AMUNDSEN are each equipped with larger, ice protected, deep-water sounders from KONGSBERG. The light icebreaker CCGS SIR WILFRID LAURIER is equipped with a retractable Kongsberg EM 2040C high resolution, shallow-water multibeam echo sounder.

Kongsberg Maritime has been a trusted supplier of multibeam echo sounders and electronics to the Government of Canada since the early 1980s. Canada's first ice protected multibeam echo sounder was installed on the research vessel CCGS AMUNDSEN in 2003 and has been in operation for almost 14 years.