Florida Port Deploys Technology To Prevent Underwater Threats
Coda Octopus Group Inc. recently announced the first deployment in the United States by a local law enforcement agency since the 9/11 attacks of a new generation of port security technology to respond to underwater threats.
The company said it had received an order from the City of Jacksonville, Fla., to deliver its Underwater Inspection System, developed for the Coast Guard, to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, whose team of highly trained public safety/bomb squad divers will be using the system on their small patrol vessels.
The UIS uses Coda’s real-time 3D sonar technology, the Coda Echoscope, to identify and classify objects underwater, enabling much more rapid and effective searches of ports and waterways.
Coda Octopus expects to deliver the UIS, which has already been deployed by the Coast Guard and in the Middle East and Asia, to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office within the next 30 days.
“The UIS will greatly enhance our capability to safeguard our ports and underwater critical infrastructure” said Chief Roy Henderson, who heads the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Homeland Security Division.
Jason Reid, Coda Octopus President and CEO, said he viewed the Jacksonville order as a “significant milestone” for Coda Octopus.
“It was shortly after 9/11 that I had my first view of a 3D real time sonar device in its earliest prototype form, and the company’s commitment to commercialize this technology was indeed inspired by the attacks,” Reid said. “It has been a long journey, but we always envisaged the ports of the United States as a very large and important market for these devices. Today, we are more certain than ever of the size of this potential market, the uniqueness and appropriateness of the technology and of the products we have to offer, and of the interest on the part of Coast Guard and of large numbers of port authorities throughout the United States.”