Surveying 2007

INFOMAR operations for 2007 began in April with the commissioning of a new Vibrocorer as part of a work programme in Galway Bay and acquisition of 6m cores in selected sites throughout the bay.

Hydrographic and geophysical surveying of the Biologically Sensitive Area to the north of the Dingle Peninsula was conducted in April and May onboard the R.V. Celtic Explorer. More than 3,200 km² of coverage was achieved in what is a designated Priority Area within the INFOMAR programme. The survey revealed hitherto undiscovered features, including a major glacial moraine over 15km long located 36km offshore and a large trough just 300-400 metres off the Dingle coast. Almost 200 sediment samples were collected from a series of ten defined seafloor regions for geochemistry, biology and particle size analysis.

In July the R.V. Celtic Voyager was used to carry out a multibeam, seismic and sidescan sonar of a Marine Derived Autogenic Carbonate site in the Kish Bank area, of the Irish Sea. The work was carried for the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Petroleum Affairs Division of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, as part of evaluation of a potential new marine Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

A multibeam survey of a prospective wavebuoy ocean energy site off Eagle Island, County Mayo was undertaken by the INFOMAR team in July. This site has subsequently been chosen as the preferred location for a future test site.

Galway Bay was the next stop for the R.V. Celtic Voyager in July and August. The survey achieved more than 550km² of coverage, from the Aran Islands in, an area that covers approximately 60% of the bay. It also confirmed the location of the Galway Bay Fault, a fault line in the North Sound running northwest to southeast, between Lettermullan/Gorumna Islands in west Connemara and the Aran Islands.

A cable route survey in Galway Bay for the proposed Smart Bay underwater observatory project was undertaken in tandem with the INFOMAR survey.

A coastal area offshore Waterford and Wexford, and the outer approaches to Waterford Harbour, an area totalling over 700 km² was surveyed in September and October onboard the R.V Celtic Voyager.

In addition to the work carried out on using the national research vessels IMAR Surveys Ltd. Were contracted to undertake a hydrographic and geophysical survey of the inner part of Galway Bay, to allow seamless merging of previously acquired R.V. Celtic Voyager and LiDAR coverage from 2006..