Page 11: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2006)

Aker Yards entered into a contract with

Olympic Shipping AS, for the building of an ROV Vessel worth approximately $64m.

The vessel is an Aker ROV 02 CD, designed by Aker Yards Project, with delivery sched- uled for April 2008. It will be 106 m long with a 21 m beam. The accommodation facilities will have capacity of 100 persons.

The vessel is also according to DNV`s Ice C class. It is specially designed and equipped for Subsea operation duties with a high focus on good sea-keeping abilities and excellent station keeping performances. The vessel will be environmentally friendly with focus on low fuel consumption and precau- tions with DNV`s Clean Design require- ments incorporated in the design. The vessel will be equipped with a 200-ton subsea crane. www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 11 with its SQQ-32 sonar and remotely-oper- ated Mine Neutralization Vehicle. The mis- sion to positively identify Lagarto was car- ried out as part of the Thailand phase of the exercise Cooperation Afloat Readiness and

Training, or CARAT. A Royal Thai Navy liaison officer was embarked aboard

Salvor to assist during the mission. San

Jose said that the diving operations were very challenging because of short bot- tom times, strong currents and limited visibility. Due to the depths involved, the dives had to be conducted with mixed gas.

Researchers Document

Underwater Eruption

A team of Japanese and U.S. researchers said an unmanned probe got within feet of a violent underwater erup- tion in the Pacific Ocean, returning with footage of seismic activity under the sea.

The footage, released by the Japan

Agency for Marine-Earth Science and

Technology, showed gray ash and vol- canic rock spewing from the summit of the underwater NW Rota-1 volcano as it erupted in October. The joint Japan-

U.S. research team also collected sedi- ment samples, team leader Yoshihiko

Tamura said. The Hyper Dolphin probe went as close as 7-10 feet from the erup- tion. The video captures a lava flow streaming down the side of the volcano, 1,800 ft. underwater in the Mariana Arc volcanic chain. (www.forbes.com) news

Aker Yards to Build ROV Vessel

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