Organization in focus SEATERRA GmbH
Ecosystem
When a journey starts, you never really know where it leads to. In 2003, when Edgar Schwab founded the SeaTerra GmbH in Wandlitz, Germany, close to Berlin, a real journey started.
At that time, Edgar Schwab already had quite some experience in the field of UXO survey and clearance projects, a branch where he, as a young geophysicist, started to work in 1997. When he founded SeaTerra, he already had made up his mind in regards of innovation and using “new sensors” in the field.
It nowadays sounds strange, that using total field magnetometers for UXO survey, having a computer in place where you log the data for later interpretation was something which has been regarded in Germany as highly suspicious. That also was the time when there was no GPS in place. The times where we have been working with measure tapes, wooden pegs and compass running through the cities and forests in order find reliable positions for our base survey points to get a survey grid in place. G822 Geometrics sensors at that time were the high-end solution for magnetics and they are still in use onshore and offshore until today.
Starting with a small team in 2003, SeaTerra nowadays has several subsidiaries in different countries. Canada (2010), Abu Dhabi (2018), Poland (2019), Croatia (2022) and around 80 permanent staff/ 80 project staff dependent on the size of the project. Working on land - inshore - nearshore – offshore, SeaTerra has about 150 -200 survey and clearance projects a year and, what is very important to mention, not a single serious accident until today.
Almost from the beginning surveying rivers and lakes has been a huge challenge. Divers mainly did the survey at that time, using handheld sensors, which wasn`t efficient at all. One of the first approaches to address this ended up in a Kanoo based survey system for very shallow waters, but having the sensors above the waterline limited the penetration depth of the sensors, therefor SeaTerra invented one of the first survey vessels which were able to lower the sensors down to the river bed in a fixed frame configuration, which allowed the first time to survey bigger areas with the sensors smoothly towed behind close to the ground.
The so called ST01 was the “working horse” for years and from year to year the equipment for measuring the angle offsets, the positioning with GPS and later dual head GPS or the way how to lower the frame became more accurate. Thousands of hectares of lakes and rivers in Brandenburg, at the river Rhein or at Hamburg harbor have been surveyed with the St01 and if there ever would be a museum for old fashioned survey systems within the SeaTerra, the ST01 would definitely have a place of honor in it.
Since this system functioned so well, SeaTerra more and more worked under difficult circumstances especially at the Hamburg harbor which led in the end to the situation, that an office in Hamburg Harburg was rented to establish another branch there.
Always parallel to the water survey and clearance, SeaTerra never stopped doing UXO survey and clearance on land. There have been many synergies between the systems of a hand carried trolley systems with four sensors and the systems in use for water surveys. From the very beginning, In-house R&D / hard- and software development was one of the main advantages of Seaterra.
All software solutions, starting from the survey software on land, position software up to the data interpretation and processing tools have been developed in good cooperation with AGS – AdvancedGeophysicalSystems, run by Steven Lee. This fruitful cooperation until today guarantees that SeaTerra can react on challenges in almost real time in regard to sampling rates, interpretation challenges, adding different additional sensors to a system or for system integration of radar, electromagnetics up to side scan sonar or multibeam into the software.
After years of development and permanent growth a new challenge rose on the horizon, the offshore survey for renewable wind energy. But before that step towards large magnetic surveys of offshore wind parks came up, SeaTerra was challenged by the NordStream1 project, where out of a sudden the UXO`s on the seafloor of the Baltic Sea became a problem for the planned dredging and pipeline laying operations. On very short notice SeaTerra has been asked to bring in a system for nearshore survey on water depth up to 20,0m, which was not with the ST01 doable at that time and another, bigger vessel was needed and the system had to be adapted to the more challenging environment and water depth.
Nordstream1 by this way was one of the main drivers to rethink UXO survey on the water since fixed frame solutions do have their limitations once the waves are getting higher and the sea becomes shakier.
At this time SeaTerra went to the market and found a towed system for survey operations at sea, the EIVA Scanfish and up to my knowledge was the first company who used that system together with G882 sensors from Gemetrics for UXO survey.
The TRIO now became the new vessel for UXO survey offshore and one of the first offshore projects for survey was the Nordsee-Ost project from RWE, one of the oldest offshore wind farms in Germany meanwhile, in front of Helgoland.
From this project onwards, the development of offshore survey and clearance software and hardware became one of the main topics of Seaterra. Meanwhile grown up to 12 employees in 2011, SeaTerra became one of the leading companies regarding new developments for survey, clearance equipment, data interpretation and reporting on the UXO offshore market.
The fast growing market for UXO clearance offshore led consequently to more and bigger vessels. When in 2014 four point mooring was the way how to position an airlift system, ROV or the divers upon the potential UXO, only few years later all those old fashioned vessels have been replaced by modern DP2 vessels.
While the development for offshore survey and clearance hard- and software became faster and faster, SeaTerra never lost the land survey out of sight. In 2018 the world’s first UXO survey drone was presented to the market, at the conference at the Dresdner Sprengschule, and at that time many people shook their heads about it.
After years of running through wet meadows, muddy construction sites, along sandy beaches with a heavy survey frame or a trolly which doesn’t move any more the team was dreaming of a drone-based system for especially those areas where walking is to dangerous or too difficult.
Again, in close cooperation with AGS after a period of only 1,5 ears the first drone system was available and tested. All the synergies from years of land survey, under water positioning, GPS experience, fast data logging and real-time-gridding now paid off. Based on a DJI210 Matrice the first magnetometer system was integrated and worked incredibly well in regard to position accuracy, noise-level and penetration depth. Since 2018 SeaTerra steadily upgraded the system which became faster, more precise while surveying slopes, flying around trees, or because of many updates for the auto flight software, the grid layout and line spacing options.
It is important to highlight the latest development from SeaTerra, particularly their innovative crawler technology, which has the potential to revolutionize UXO (unexploded ordnance) clearance operations offshore, especially in UXO dumping areas. Since 2022, SeaTerra has been developing small and medium-sized crawler systems that can be remotely operated and stably positioned on the seafloor to investigate, identify, and clear UXOs 24/7.
In addition to clearance tasks, the new Norppa300 can operate a magnetic survey system and collect water and soil samples.
After years of chartering the bigger survey vessels for UXO survey projects, SeaTerra in 2023 decided to own vessel. Since May 2024 the STRIBOG meanwhile did 3000ha of magnetic/ sidescansonar survey and has been set up in a way that magnetic survey, SideScanSonar, Multibeam as well as SubBottemSurvey can be performed without long mobilization and calibration phases.
Meanwhile more the 50.000 ha of offshore survey has been performed, tens of thousands offshore targets have been cleared, about 50 blasting performed or UXO lifted and shifted where necessary.
The project has expanded significantly, encompassing various initiatives such as Dolwin 2 and 3, Merkur, Nord Stream 2, Hohe See, Veja Mate, Nordergründe, Rentel, Trianel, Baltic 2, and the Swinoujście/Szczecin fairway, along with the NLG terminals at Hooksiel and Rügen.
To date, over 50,000 hectares of offshore surveys have been conducted, resulting in the clearance of tens of thousands of offshore targets. Approximately 50 blasting operations have been performed, and unexploded ordnance (UXO) has been lifted and relocated as necessary.
Until 2024, SeaTerra has been active in numerous countries around the world, including Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Serbia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Russia, Poland, the UK, Ireland, Canada, the US, Taiwan, Qatar, the UAE, Iraq, and Papua New Guinea. We extend our congratulations on this journey, which can be regarded as both outstanding and impressive.
