Technology
Homarus owns some underwater surveying equipment such as: Underwater Remote Operated Vehicles, side scan sonar, USBL (acoustic positioning system) and an Olex system for benthic mapping.
We use it for multiple reasons including ghost gear detection, habitat monitoring (species at risk, species of interest, scallop buffer zone (protected area)), sea bed scanning for ideal artificial reefs location, identifying different types of bottom to help find species of interest based on their preferred habitat, etc,…
Remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV)
Underwater ROV’s – we have two, they’re equipped with a full HD 1080p internal front camera with camera tilt of +/- 180° pitch (vertical rotation), capable of vertical depth and horizontal lateral movement and four front-facing 1500 Lumen lights to capture brilliant videos. The topside has a big marine grade display screen that lets us view the bottom footage live and record to a USB key.
Fun fact: both our ROV’s have names that are inscribed on the robot: Hadley and Julianna. They are manufactured by a company based in PEI named Marine Nav and they choose the names at manufacturing. They also come with arm attachments to take water and soil samples, cut ropes, grab etc..
USBL – Acoustic positioning system
The USBL (ultra short baseline) is an acoustic positioning system that attaches to the ROVs to situate them underwater and/or map out transects, and follow coordinates. The device uses triangulation to pinpoint the position of the ROV. The positioning system consists of a USBL transponder and a beacon. We mount or suspend the transponder from the vessel. It communicates wirelessly with the beacon on our ROV using high-frequency sound waves.
The transponder periodically transmits commands to the beacon, which the beacon will reply to immediately. The transponder can then measure the response time and returning signal direction. This data allows the system to calculate the ROV’s position relative to the boat.
Side-scan Towfish sonar system:
Our SSS is a portable sonar that is easily transported and deployed to scan large areas of the seabed to spot anomalies, wrecks, ghost gear and other objects. It conducts a smooth survey of a target area simply by lowering or raising the sonar to a fixed depth.
With GPS integrated into the topside case built-in screen, the Side-scan Towfish sonar can also be used as a chart plotter and is compatible with most marine map software, including Navionics, to provide detailed nautical navigation charts.
Olex System:
The Olex system is fixed on our Homarus work boat. Olex is an innovative software program for navigation, fishing and surveying. Uniquely running on a Linux-based platform. We use it to do benthic mapping. Gives us the bottom hardness. Used it a lot to confirm ideal areas for adding artificial reefs.
Innovation and preservation of ecosystems
We keep up with technologies and keep getting training on our equipment in hopes of preserving the ecosystem health.
Fight against ghost gears:
The efforts for preventing and collect ghost gear has been shared amongst a lot of partners in the commercial fishing industry. Homarus has had funding partners ( mostly DFO) in the past to help with this ongoing issue.
The Maritime Fisherman’s Union is also always looking into ways to reduce lost gear. Our fishermen always come together to mitigate the impact it has on our precious ecosystems.
