Canada to Build 7 New Survey Vessels

 

Canadian Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Hunter Tootoo, announced that Kanter Marine Inc. of St. Thomas, Ontario is the winning bidder for the procurement of seven new survey vessels for the Canadian Hydrographic Service to support the seabed surveying and charting of Canada’s navigable waters.

 

The $5.3 million investment will go toward customized hydrographic survey vessels that will be outfitted with permanent state-of-the-art multibeam sonar systems to help the Canadian Hydrographic Service continue to meet rigorous international standards for hydrographic surveys.

 

Once built, the seven new vessels will be added to the existing survey vessel fleet located across Canada. The new vessels will be employed to collect data in the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, in Arctic waters and on the East Coast.

 

“These new hydrographic survey vessels are critical investments, which will improve marine safety and allow us to deepen our scientific knowledge of our oceans and waterways. This innovative technology will help us to deliver on the Government of Canada’s commitment to protect our marine environment and manage our fisheries in a sustainable way,” Tootoo said.

 

The vessels are currently expected to begin construction immediately, with production and delivery to be complete by March 2017. Fisheries and Oceans Canada expects to take receipt of the first vessel by October 2016. The new survey vessels will be located in Mont Joli, Quebec; Dartmouth, Nova Scotia; Burlington, Ontario; and St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador to further enhance the Canadian Hydrographic Service’s surveying capacity in Canada’s coastal waters and in major shipping waterways.