Southern Surveyor

Facilities and equipment

Facilities
Shipboard equipment
Deployable equipment

Facilities

Southern Surveyor at sea

Back deck operations

Operations rooms

The mess

RV Southern Surveyor is a flexible, broadly capable multi-purpose research vessel configured to enable a wide range of oceanographic, marine geoscience, fisheries, ecosystem and marine environment research to be undertaken from a single platform.

The clear after deck spaces allow a wide range of equipment and container laboratories to be fitted as required by researchers. The stern ramp cover significantly increases the available aft-deck working space.

The stern A-frame is capable of travelling through a wide arc of movement and has a 15 tonne capability.

A knuckle-boom crane provides the capability to move equipment between the wharf, aft-deck and foc'sle deck and can lift up to 7 tonnes at a 12 metre radius.

A coring winch holds approximately 7000 metres of 19 mm wire for gravity and piston coring work. Twin winch drums each hold approximately 7000 m of 8mm conducting cable to provide the capability for full ocean depth CTD (conductivity/temperature/depth) profiles.

The vessel has a range of onboard laboratories, as well as five special purpose rooms plus blast and holding freezers. It is also capable of deploying specialised containerised chemical and biological laboratories.

On the shelter deck, are located a fish sorting room, the fish/geoscience laboratory, a preservation/photographic laboratory, the wet hydrographic laboratory, the chemistry laboratory, the holding and blast freezers and a workshop.

Located on the main deck, are the controlled temperature laboratory, the electronics workshop, the data entry and computer room, the operations room, the photographic darkroom, and a general purpose laboratory.

The vessel offers comfortable accommodation for up to 15 scientists and support staff, full mess facilities for thirty personnel and two lounges. Her crew possess an unrivalled depth of experience in Australian waters, and she is set up for twenty-four hour operation.

The Marine National Facility can deploy an extensive range of equipment. Some of this is part of the ship's onboard outfit and is available on every voyage. Other equipment can be placed on board on request.

The tables below provide a general description of the spaces and equipment and services available. These should not be relied upon when planning a voyage.

When planning a voyage Principal Investigators, Chief Scientists and their collaborators must refer to the Scientific Services, Equipment and Facilities specification for the vessel available here for a comprehensive and detailed description of the equipment and services that can be made available. They are also strongly advised to discuss their needs with the Ship Operations Manager prior to undertaking detailed planning.

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Shipboard equipment

Underway Equipment

Inmarsat Fleet 77 & C, Minisat M, Optus Mobilesat, NextG – all transmitting voice, data (email), fax (except NextG)
Navigation – GPS position – differentially corrected within the APSAT footprint
Seapath Seatex 200 – for accurate heading, pitch and roll
Gyro and Ship's log
Endeavour Navigator electronic chart and navigation package
Thermosalinograph with fluorometer (fluorometer requires support for calibration)
Meteorological station (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure, PAR, rainfall, radiation)

Laboratory Facilities and Scientific Equipment

General purpose laboratory
Controlled Temperature Laboratory/Cold Room
Hydrochemistry laboratory
The following onboard equipment requires additional MNF hydrochemistry support staff to operate:
- Salinity Analysis
- Oxygen Analysis
- Nitrate Analysis
- Silicate Analysis
- Phosphate Analysis
- Nitrite Analysis
- Lachat auto-analyser
Web laboratory/CTD room
Fish laboratory/geosciences laboratory
Dark room
Photo/Preservation Lab
Walk-in Freezer
Blast freezer
Laboratory Fridges and Freezer
Milli-Q Water Supply (used in hydrochem analysis)
Scintillation counter
Electronic fish measuring boards
Diving Compressor (high pressure)