Much of this work was carried out by aircraft using a technolody known as LIDAR – meaning Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging.  This technique is a near-shore surveying technique particularly useful in rugged or complex bays. The use of aircraft allows the laser measurements to be made much more efficiently than surveying the same areas with boats and echo sounders. The company used to carry out these surveys was Tenix LADS Corporation of Australia. 

Their LADS system is based in a de Havilland Dash 8 aircraft and utilises pulses of light to measure water depth in shallow coastal regions. In pre survey reconnaissance it was decided that good quality data were achievable to depths of 20m with areas requiring 200% coverage (i.e. to be flown twice), to manage tides, turbidity and low cloud levels. Unfortunately, weather during the survey period was unseasonably bad, even by Irish Standards, with 200+% of the monthly rainfall for September falling during the first two weeks of the survey! Indeed the surveys weren’t the only events affected by this inclement weather - the Ryder Cup also experienced the outer reaches of Hurricane Gordon, the main contributor to the poor weather!

Still the survey team persevered and as well as extending the number of flights from 12 planned to 15 actual they also extended their field period by several weeks in an attempt to counteract the weather effects. Good 200% coverage was achieved in parts of Bantry Bay, particularly behind Whiddy Island and at Bantry Harbour, and also towards the east of Dunmanus Harbour. In other areas of these bays however coverage was affected by high levels of run-off, white water due to the large swells and persistent low cloud. So the survey team identified an alternative survey area - South Galway Bay – where the results were comprehensively good.