This October, AQUARIUS delivered a hands-on training opportunity for hydrographic surveyors and seabed mappers in collaboration with HydroOctave and INFOMAR. Hosted aboard the Marine Institute’s state-of-the-art research vessel Tom Crean, the programme provided participants with the rare opportunity of learning at sea while working directly with industry-standard multibeam echosounder (MBES) systems.
The training programme was designed and taught by Dr Jonathan Beaudoin of HydroOctave Consulting and combined clear theoretical foundations with extensive operational practice. Dr Jonathan Beaudoin has two decades of seabed-mapping experience and a long career teaching hydrographic surveying, ensuring participants gained practical, actionable knowledge they could apply in their own work.
The training began with foundational modules on acoustic principles, sonar theory, system components and calibration procedures. From there, participants progressed to multibeam data acquisition, processing and analysis.
A major strength of the programme was its intensive practical component. Working both on deck and in the operations room of RV Tom Crean, participants collected and processed live MBES data, gaining first-hand experience of vessel operations, real-time adjustments and decision-making at sea. costs while accessing the infrastructure is also provided. AQUARIUS is offering this access to researchers across Europe and beyond, helping to support cutting-edge science regardless of national funding limitations.
During the practical sessions, students surveyed two shipwrecks in the Celtic Sea – the SS East Wales, a First World War casualty of U-57, and a nearby unidentified wreck. These deployments enabled participants to test different sonar settings, optimise density and resolution, evaluate uncertainty, and compare backscatter responses.
AQUARIUS is committed to facilitating access to Europe’s leading marine and freshwater Research Infrastructures. This training was testament to this commitment, by bringing together early-career and experienced surveyors from across Europe and beyond to strengthen technical capacity, expand professional networks and ensure that the next generation of hydrographic surveyors and seabed mappers gained the knowledge and confidence needed to deliver high-quality seabed mapping in their own regions.