OPEN SEAS INSTRUMENTATION INC.

OPEN SEAS INSTRUMENTATION INC.

Open Seas is a manufacturer of equipment for physical
oceanographers and marine biologists.

Marine Biology products are primarily fully instrumented
zooplankton sampling sytems. These are multiple net,
fully instrumented systems, with operating software.
They include the Bioness, Mininess, RMT and Tucker Trawls.

The company also specializes in highly stable mooring systems
for oceanographic instrumentation. The SUBS line is a system
used for mooring current meters, ADCP's, acoustic and and optical
instruments. By using patented streamlined flotation, the
moorings are kept very stable, vortex shedding is virtually
eliminating which substantially reduces mooring oscillation,
and instrument data is significantly enhanced.

Open Seas provides trawl resistant bottom mounts for
instrumentation (primarily ADCPs and ADPs), significantly
reducing the problem of fishing gear depredation.

Most recently a product line has been introduced which allows
sidescan sonar operators to work and obtain good data in sea
states that were previously impossible.

Company Details

Year Established: 1993

Number of Employees: 5

Company Information

Dan Wellwood
Title: President
Area of Responsibility: Management Executive
Telephone: (902) 889-3339
Fax: (902) 889-3313
Email: Click Here

Products

Bioness

Adcp Moorings
Highly stable ADCP/ADP moorings are manufactured and in use world-wide. Standard models are available for RDI, Sontek and Nortek instruments. ADCP/ADP moorings must be stable to obtain good data. The instruments cannot differentiate between current movement and instrument movement. Typical spherical mounts move from side to side due to vertex induced shedding. By using SUBS instrument mounts, shedding is virtually eliminated, and a highly stable platform is provided, ensuring good data sets.

Trawl Resistant Shields
Open Seas introduced the first Trawl Resistant Shields for Blue Water ADCPs, and continues to produce shields for both the older larger instruments, and the newer small ACPs/ADPs. Several models are available from small units for lower risk environments up to full protection in the most demanding applications.

Tucker Trawl
An opening and closing mid-water trawl used for zooplankton research. It is typically a single net system with either a 1.0m or 2.5m effective mouth area, and is available either fully instrumented including CTD and electronic fow and pitch sensors, or with a mechanical closing activated by a messenger system.

Ikmt Net
A mid-water trawl, used for zooplankton research. It is a highly stable net system, not subject to mouth pitch changes at varying tow speeds. It utilizes a depressor to maintain depth. This net is typically open to depth.

Rmt
The RMT is a Rectangular Mid-water Trawl, and typically has two nets, one mounted above the other. Towed from a bridle above the top net, it typically has an opening and closing top net with effective mouth area of 2 to 2.5m, and a larger lower net, often open to depth. A typical designation would be RMT 2+8, indicating a top net of 2 sq m, and a lower net of 8 sq m, both being effective mouth sizes. These systems are usually fully instrumented. A fairly large crane is required for deployment/recovery due to the overall system size.

Subs Buoyancy
SUBS Streamlined Underwater Buoyancy System is a product line consisting of streamlined buoyancy used on instrumented moorings. By eliminating the vortex shedding typical of spherical flotation, mooring movement is significantly reduced. This eliminates the data errors and under-reporting which is commonly reported for mechanical and electro-magnetic current meters. SUBS are also being used on optical moorings, hydophone arrays and sediment traps. Models available for coastal deployment (<200m) and deep ocean (to 6000m).

Sidescan Towing
A new and innovative method of towing sidescan fish, which allows an operator to obtain very good data in heavy seas, where previously it would not have been possible to operate a towed system. Good data can be obtained up to Sea State 4. The system also provides good bottom avoidance. Significant operational savings can obtained when a vessel is not idled by sea state.

Services