Canada sends aircraft to map spreading Gulf oil slicks

A Canadian maritime surveillance aircraft equipped with what is described as the best equipment in the Northern Hemisphere to track oil slicks has flown daily missions since May 1 over the Gulf of Mexico to help map the spreading oil to determine how best to manage the clean up.

Canada also has sent oil containment booms and dispatched scientists from the Center for Offshore Oil and Gas Environmental Research in Ottawa to assist the U.S. response to the disaster. This month, Gail Shea, Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, said that nation will do whatever it can to help.

"When faced with an environmental tragedy like the one in the Gulf of Mexico, we must not forget that we are all global citizens who must be prepared to lend a hand where it's needed," she said. "Canada and the United States have a long-standing tradition of helping one another in times of need, and we stand ready to assist our American neighbors."

The two-engine turboprop Bombardier Dash-8 maritime surveillance aircraft flown to the Gulf uses side-looking airborne radar, which takes images at right angles to the aircraft, and an ultraviolet infrared line scanner to map, track and identify oil slicks, said Mélanie Quesnel, a spokeswoman for Transport Canada.

Side-looking radar eyeballs the surface of the Gulf for a distance of nine miles on either side of the DASH-8, identifies anomalies, which are then manually confirmed by an observer as recoverable oil or oil that can be dispersed on the ocean surface by chemicals, Quesnel said

Other gear includes geo-coded digital still- and video-camera systems, imagery that can be precisely overlaid on maps to show the location of oil slicks; electro-optical camera equipment to identify vessels operating in the Gulf; and a maritime automatic identification system receiver that picks up signals from ships weighing more than 300 tons that are equipped with AIS transmitters.

The DASH-8 flies out of an airport in Houma, La., 58 miles southwest of New Orleans and is supported by a crew of 10, including six members from Transport Canada and four from Environment Canada. Three operators staff consoles in the cabin.

The crew produces a map of the slicks it identified during the mission and are transmitted in near real-time over a satellite communications system to the federal Incident Command Center.

A typical mission lasts five hours and can cover 1,300 nautical miles.

Canada uses the DASH-8 in routine operations to detect pollution from ships in Canadian waters and has partnered with the U.S. Coast Guard to use its system in contiguous waters, Quesnel said. The Coast Guard was eager to have the DASH-8 deployed to the Gulf because the United States does not have an aircraft with similar capabilities.