Researchers hope to find undiscovered shipwrecks near Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary using new sonar technology.
The sonar is called ATLAS, for Autonomous Topographic Large Area Survey. It can map a swath of lakebed one thousand meters wide with a single scan, but with slightly less resolution than older sonar.
Russ Green is a deputy superintendent and research coordinator at the Thunder Bay Sanctuary. He says the ATLAS sonar has identified potential shipwreck sites. He says researchers will use higher-resolution equipment to investigate further.
"There are some targets that are promising, that we're looking forward to following up. And now it's a little bit of a waiting game as we kind of pull in the remotely operated vehicle and the high-resolution sonar to kind of really find out what's going on there. So there's a little lag time between what we find with this great sonar, and figuring out exactly what it is. But there are some good targets out there, for sure."
Green says in addition to finding shipwrecks, the project aims to map the lakebed more thoroughly.
"It does paint kind of a picture of the bottom. We're learning a little bit more about the geology of the lake bed. For instance, if there was a submerged sinkhole, which occur in the sanctuary, chances are the sonar would pick that up. And also habitat. We know that ATLAS will pick up a little bit of geology, and maybe we can learn a little bit more about the diversity of the habitat within the marine sanctuary, and beyond."
Green says the sonar equipment is mounted on a free-swimming underwater vehicle, which surveys the lake bed for eight to ten hours at a time.
The project concludes on Friday. By then, Green hopes to have scanned 150 square miles of the Lake Huron lakebed.
The sonar is called ATLAS, for Autonomous Topographic Large Area Survey. It can map a swath of lakebed one thousand meters wide with a single scan, but with slightly less resolution than older sonar.
Russ Green is a deputy superintendent and research coordinator at the Thunder Bay Sanctuary. He says the ATLAS sonar has identified potential shipwreck sites. He says researchers will use higher-resolution equipment to investigate further.
"There are some targets that are promising, that we're looking forward to following up. And now it's a little bit of a waiting game as we kind of pull in the remotely operated vehicle and the high-resolution sonar to kind of really find out what's going on there. So there's a little lag time between what we find with this great sonar, and figuring out exactly what it is. But there are some good targets out there, for sure."
Green says in addition to finding shipwrecks, the project aims to map the lakebed more thoroughly.
"It does paint kind of a picture of the bottom. We're learning a little bit more about the geology of the lake bed. For instance, if there was a submerged sinkhole, which occur in the sanctuary, chances are the sonar would pick that up. And also habitat. We know that ATLAS will pick up a little bit of geology, and maybe we can learn a little bit more about the diversity of the habitat within the marine sanctuary, and beyond."
Green says the sonar equipment is mounted on a free-swimming underwater vehicle, which surveys the lake bed for eight to ten hours at a time.
The project concludes on Friday. By then, Green hopes to have scanned 150 square miles of the Lake Huron lakebed.