PROMINENT geo-data specialist business Fugro has been selected to chart the waters of South Australia’s Gulf of St Vincent and Investigator Strait as part of the Australian government’s HydroScheme Industry Partnership Program (or HIPP).
The 998 km2 survey is to be done on behalf of the Australian Hydrographic Office, who will use the data to update nautical charts for safer navigation.
Data is also expected to be shared with scientific agencies, including Geoscience Australia and the national AusSeabed community.
“Fugro is proud to be supporting the AHO as part of the HIPP,” said Mark Sinclair, director of Hydrography for Fugro in Asia-Pacific.
“Long-term strategic partnerships help support innovation, such as our USV for faster data acquisition, and contribute to developing an enduring national hydrographic industry.”
The nautical charts of Gulf St Vincent and Investigator Strait that support marine traffic, fishing, tourism, recreational boating and environmental management currently are made up of historical data of varying reliability, some going as far back as Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin in the early 1800s.
As part of the hydrographic survey, Fugro is to also deploy several tide gauges and current meters to improve understanding of the Gulf’s oceanography and support the development of an accurate tide model for future vessel traffic and to resolve known tide datum anomalies in this complex region.
