HIPP awards Fugro Gulf St Vincent charting project for Australian Hydrographic Office

Fugro has been selected to chart the waters of South Australia’s Gulf St Vincent and Investigator Strait as part of the Australian government’s HydroScheme Industry Partnership Program (HIPP).

The 998-square-kilometre survey will be conducted on behalf of the Australian Hydrographic Office (AHO), which will use the data to update nautical charts for safer navigation. Data will also be shared with scientific agencies, including Geoscience Australia and the national AusSeabed community.

This area within Gulf St Vincent and Investigator Strait is the major waterway for the approach to Port Adelaide and features adjacent marine parks and habitat protection zones of national significance.

Fugro will deploy an uncrewed surface vessel (USV) to expedite data collection as well as a remote operations centre in Australia.

The nautical charts of Gulf St Vincent and Investigator Strait that support marine traffic, fishing, tourism, recreational boating, and environmental management currently consist of historical data of varying reliability, some going as far back as Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin in the early 1800s.

As part of the hydrographic survey, Fugro will also deploy a number of tide gauges and current meters to improve understanding of the gulf’s oceanography and support the development of an accurate tide model for future vessel traffic and to resolve known tide datum anomalies in the region.