Offshore staff
RIO DE JANEIRO – CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. (CSA), in an exclusive partnership with Germano & Associates Inc. (G&A), introduced Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI) technology in Brazil and completed a contract from the Environmental Assessment and Monitoring Administration of Petrobras, CENPES/PDEDS/AMA, for an environmental quality gradient study of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The program developed by CSA had two primary objectives. First, CSA conducted seafloor SPI and plan view (PV) imaging of Guanabara Bay to map the environmental gradient of benthic communities in unconsolidated sediments and to evaluate the effects of anoxia and hypoxia on benthic community structure along with oxygen concentrations, pH, and turbidity data collection within the water column.
CSA also demonstrated the effectiveness and advantages of the combined use of SPIand PV imaging technology, following Petrobras’ interest in potentially using the tool for permitting and environmental monitoring applications and programs in both shallow and deepwater.
CSA completed the field sampling phase of the project in April, and is conducting data analysis and integration for reporting purposes. The field sampling component of the program comprised 150 stations, 27 of which were historical stations previously sampled for sediment or water and 123 were newly established. SPI technology allowed for this large number of sample stations because the sample productivity rate of this equipment is much higher than traditional sediment sampling methods.
06/11/2014
