32 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 www.vanguardcanada.com
NAVAL
By CoL Pierre LeBLANC (ret'd)
Is the Navy mIssINg
A
t a recent Canadian Mari-
time Advisory Council
meeting in Ottawa, I was
disappointed to learn again
that the Royal Canadian
Navy still had no plan to install multi-
beam echo sounder (MBES) on the Arc-
tic Offshore Patrol Ships which are under
construction now.
I was also concerned with the fact that
only approximately 8 per cent of the Ca-
nadian Arctic has been surveyed to mod-
ern standards and only a total of about
14 per cent is done to a modern or ad-
equate standard. Hydrographic surveys
are required to produce nautical charts,
and updated surveys allow for safer and
more efficient marine transportation in
Canada's northern waters.
To assist the Canadian Hydrographic
Service increase the percentage of Arctic
oceans surveyed to modern or adequate
standards, the Canadian Coast Guard has
already equipped four of its icebreakers with
MBES, with two more planned and funded
for the CCGS Henry Larson and Pierre
Radisson to take place in the next two years.
Retrofitting Arctic Offshore Patrol
Ships (AOPS) with MBES will obviously
be more expensive than if the systems
were installed while under construc-
tion. That would naturally require minor
modifications to the existing plans, but it
would be more cost effective in the long
run. The funding could potentially come
in part from the important and successful
Ocean Protection Plan.
Traffic is rapidly increasing with the
fast disappearing arctic ice. The summer
of 2018 saw a total of 167 ships entering
the Arctic and completing more than 400
voyages. More traffic will naturally lead
to more marine accidents in poorly sur-
veyed areas of the Arctic. On 17 August
2018, the cruise ship Akademik Ioffe ran
aground in a poorly charted area of the
western Gulf of Boothia near Kugaaruk,
Nunavut. Two of the five Canadian Coast
Guard icebreakers in the Arctic were dis-
A greAt oPPortuNity?
Credit: Canadian Hydrographic Service
