New methods for mapping and monitoring of seabed

In the last decade, in the search for new oil field, the oil and gas industry has been moving Northward into the Barents Sea. The South West Barents Sea is characterized by the presence of deep water coral which are protected species and also sponge aggre gations which may be impacted by drilling muds. The authorities are therefore requiring a thorough seabed mapping before any industrial activities can take place, in order to ensure if the coral and/or the sponge communities are impacted by any activities throughout the process of exploration and production. While habitat mapping is traditionally done with sediment survey and benthic community analysis, the deep water coral and sponge habitat call for technology wich is non invasive and non destructive. T oday, video imaging using ROV is widely used by Akvaplan-niva for mapping these habitats. Such technique is very accurate in term of localization, non destructive, and allows to use both video and sampling gears. However, it is time demanding in term of h uman resources, and therefore rather costly. Finally, sea bed mapping may be subjective. ECOTONE approach would be to use an underwater hyperspectral imager (UHI) to identify species on the seabed. This is a unique and new methodology developed at NTNU wh ich is now being commercialized through the spin-off company Ecotone (partly owned by TTO NTNU). The idea is that each specie has its own optical fingerprint, based on it's pigment structure. By use of the UHI unit and suitable platforms larger areas can be mapped, giving automatic identification, classification and population of various species (e.g. corals, sponges). From the foregoing account, we wish to develop a project to assess the potential of UHI sensor technology for seabed mapping and compare i t to traditional approaches. We will also assess different platforms for deploying this sensor (AUV; ROV, towed behind a boat, divers etc).