Working an Umbilical Winch in Order to Retrieve Deployed Equipment Underwater

An umbilical winch may sound funny: the term ‘umbilical’ usually only accompanies the cord you are born attached to your mother with. However, this particular winch is extremely important within the context of an offshore marine experiment team. When you drop down equipment into the water, then you inevitably need to retrieve that same equipment later. Thankfully, you don’t need to conduct all of these complicated procedures on your own. When you use the umbilical technology of the right winch, you can literally raise and lift the equipment that you drop down into the water. In the first place, you are running a little bit of a risk by dropping down your equipment into the water. But by having a tool that can reliably bring that equipment back up, then you are able to at the very least get the investment you made back! You don’t run the same risk of losing your equipment just as soon as you deploy it. And for tools like the acoustic doppler current profiler, which is a very important, expensive and sensitive piece of equipment, you want to make sure that you are backing up your equipment supply with other high-quality pieces.

When you work a winch, be sure to know what you are hooking onto! You would hate to bring up a completely unrelated piece of equipment when you finally get around to pulling up the winch.

When you are working the winch, be sure to have someone on your team who has used the equipment before. Even though you may not think of it, even a winch can be incredibly complicated, especially for those who are not as scientifically or technically inclined. If you don’t have the best sense for how to operate this heavy machinery, you can always consult an outside expert. 

Acoustic Command Tower – Deploying and Retrieving Precious Marine Equipment from Underwater with Acoustic Releases

If you want to keep track of all the precious equipment you deploy underwater, acoustic releases are the best way to do so. Even if you don’t know what to do with your releases, you know that you have deployed precious materials into the ocean. Therefore, when you're-bring up those materials later, you have the benefit of knowing that you have securely retrieved those items that you have spent key money on. Let’s be honest, working marine equipment can be complicated and difficult. If you have the help of reliable tools like releases, then you can at the very least be sure that you are not wasting money through expensive tools into the ocean, never to be retrieved. Having that security can mean a lot, especially if you are on a deployment to some very rocky, unstable waters.

When you deploy materials and equipment underwater, the command center on shore should also be able to see what you are dropping.

Having a sense of transparency between the on-shore team and the offshore team is absolutely critical to not losing your money in the water or messing up your planned experiment. Tools like the acoustic doppler current profiler can help you maintain transparency underwater, and best of all the tool gives you a great sense for when massive currents are about to roll in.