Fosters February 03, 2008
Port of N.H. to start using sonar, underwater camera this summer
By Robert M. Cook
The Port of New Hampshire is scheduled to roll out an underwater surveillance system in the Piscataqua River this summer to deter terrorist attacks on bridges, ships and other potential targets.
The technology includes sonar equipment and a remotely operated underwater robotic camera, all created by Sonatech Corp. of Bedford and designed to work as a single system.
"Any type of security is pretty much a visual type of security," said Geno Marconi, director of the New Hampshire Division of Ports and Harbors. "But you can't see what's going under the water."
The Sea Otter, as the underwater camera is named, will let the Port of New Hampshire, State Police, New Hampshire Marine Patrol and Coast Guard check any potential threats to three major bridges that connect New Hampshire and Maine. Marconi said the camera also can help authorities check the hulls of incoming ships that transport, for example, fuel, coal or oil.
"Right now, there's nothing — nowhere, nobody, no how — looking under the water of the Piscataqua River," Marconi said. "What it will do is give us another tool for our toolbox for Homeland Security."
Sonar detectors also will be placed on either side of the Sarah Long Bridge, and another will be placed to scan an area from the Sarah Long Bridge past the I-95 bridge. A final sonar will survey past the Memorial Bridge by Prescott Park.
If potential threats are detected, the system will send a signal to law enforcement agencies, according to Deputy Chief Harbormaster Grant Nicholls. He said it isn't certain yet who will monitor the system at the marine terminal.
Law enforcement agencies then would use a new, 30-foot, high-speed boat to take the Sea Otter to the area where the threat is detected. The new vessel can travel up to 45 mph and is equipped with two 250-horsepower outboard engines, Nicholls said.
The robotic camera would be launched, and personnel aboard the vessel would operate it with a joystick to scan the area. It has a manipulator arm capable of picking things up under water.
Harvey Woodsum, president of Sonatech Corp., said the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy will conduct a joint security exercise with the new equipment in June to see how it will perform. He said New Hampshire is holding talks with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to see if the federal government wants to use the equipment to monitor underwater activity near the shipyard.
Danna Eddy, a shipyard spokeswoman, would not comment.
"In accordance with long-standing Navy policy, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard does not discuss security measures that may or may not currently be in place nor security measures that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard may or may not be considering for future implementation," Eddy wrote in an email to the newspaper.
Woodsum said the departments of Defense and Homeland Security chose Portsmouth as a test site more than a year ago.
He called the terrorist threat posed by al-Qaida very real and said terrorists are close to having the ability to use divers to attach bombs to ship hulls and bridges or other potential harbor targets.
"We have bridges that can be attacked and sunk in the harbor, which would basically stop all traffic" between New Hampshire and Maine, Woodsum said.
Woodsum said Sonatech has invested $35 million to develop the system, and it has been tested at several U.S. ports.
Woodsum said it can handle changing river conditions, and the Piscataqua has some of the strongest currents in the country.
Woodsum said his company will work with state and federal officials to fine tune the system.
Nicholls said the underwater technology should pose no threat to recreational boaters.
"It is capable of determining the difference between a diver and a harbor seal or a large fish," Nicholls said.
Some Homeland Security experts question the need for such technology to deter terrorist divers in U.S. ports.
John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a think tank based in Alexandria, Va., said he believes the threat of terrorist divers as expressed by federal Homeland Security officials may be exaggerated.
"Somehow I have difficulty worrying about the seriousness of this threat, at least compared to other problems that remain unsolved, such as poor border security and reliable ID cards," Pike wrote in an email to the newspaper.
Nicholls said Port of New Hampshire officials would rather be safe than sorry.
"I think it pays to be prepared, whether we're operating in the Port of Portsmouth or the Port of Los Angeles," Nicholls said.
© Copyright 2008, Geo. J. Foster Company
