Industry News

The SeaLion-2 is JW Fishers’ most desired ROV. The system comes standard with 4 high performance motors, a 1,000’ (300m) depth rated housing, front and rear facing camera both with pan and tilt functionality, and an On Screen Display (OSD) of basic time, date, and GPS coordinates. Illumination is provided by 4400 lumen LED bulbs and a 15” ultra-bright LCD monitor is seamlessly displayed in the system’s splash-proof Pelican® case. More thrust is available with a “power boost” feature that provides the ROV with an extra burst of speed for a few seconds when it encounters heavier than normal currents. The additional payload allows the SeaLion-2 to be fitted with various options such as a SCAN650 sector scanning sonar system, a manipulator arm, scientific research equipment, or and RMD-1 remote metal detector.

The Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) are avid users of the Pulse 8X detector. The RCMP have been Canada's national police service for nearly 150 years. The team has national, federal, provincial, and municipal policing mandates. From coast to coast to coast, at the community, provincial/territorial and federal levels they strive to prevent crime, investigate crimes, enforce federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal law, and most importantly keep Canadian citizens safe. According to Cpl. T.N. Kaufmann “the Pulse 8X is being used at the RCMP National Underwater Recovery Training Centre (NURTC) in Nanaimo, BC. The RCMP Dive teams across Canada utilize the Pulse 8x when searching for small pieces of evidence at underwater crime scenes

Any sort of diving involves risk, but work on commercial dive boats is particularly dangerous. All divers face hazards from being underwater for too long, ascending too quickly, or even from sharks and other undersea life. Commercial divers, however, also handle large and complex equipment in construction zones or in low-visibility turbulent waters. There is no limit to the number of commercial tasks wherein safety is paramount; from law enforcement officers searching for missing victims or lost evidence to underwater photographers and academic teams excavating underwater archaeological sites. Other work includes underwater inspections, pipeline construction, diving at coastal nuclear power plants, or constructing and maintaining bridges, harbors, or hydroelectric dams and power plants. JW Fishers Mfg. has made it our mission to help mitigate these risks by offering a line of underwater search equipment to keep operators safe, raise efficiency, reduce exposure, and as an added bonus; to save money.

Commercial Diving & Marine Services, Inc., is one customer that has been in the spotlight recently for their underwater commercial applications. The Michigan based company has provided quality diving services for over 40 years. Owner Keith Mear employs top-notch commercial divers that perform salvage operations, pre-construction surveys, endangered species investigations, sediment sampling, pipeline inspections, sonar Surveys, water intake cleaning, and maintenance of industrial and municipal facilities throughout the Great Lakes. They currently are own both the Pulse 8X and CT-1 Cable Tracker. Recently, the company was tasked with two similar jobs that ultimately required two different pieces of equipment.

Traditional methods of wild-capture fishing cannot possibly satisfy the ever-increasing demand. Aquaculture, or the practice of farming marine life, has increased to meet this demand and now accounts for over half of all shrimp production. However, the shrimp aquaculture industry operates with little understanding of how much shrimp is in a pond. Farmers must take a “best guess” approach that ultimately results in incomplete and inaccurate information.

As human development increased in Michigan, this critical habitat was largely lost due to sedimentation resulting from land use changes such as logging and agriculture. The loss of inner Saginaw Bay’s rock reefs contributed to the 1940s collapse of Saginaw Bay’s Walleye fishery and negatively impacted local populations of Lake Whitefish, Lake Trout, Burbot, and other species. The reefs were determined to be in dire need of restoration to bring back the ecosystem that once thrived.

Steve carefully analyzed the environmental implications before starting this type of endeavor. “At this stage I considered very carefully the impact a specimen seashell license would have on the environment.” These considerations included (1) “this would be the only specimen seashell license in South Australia, so overfishing seemed impossible,” (2) “the weather would only allow me to fish a small number of days a year,” (3) “with specimen seashells, only the best shells have value so I would expect to only take about one quality shell out of thirty or more seen,” (4) “South Australia also has many sanctuary zones protecting many seashell populations and marine parks ensuring minimal impact on species.

Tom Moeding, Beadle County’s Emergency Management Director, experienced this first hand. “We used our JW Fishers side scan sonar to pinpoint the location of a 2014 Dodge pickup that was driven into the James River, our local river here in Huron SD.” The driver behind the wheel ran the vehicle into the river during the middle of the night, but could not remember the exact location. After scouring the shoreline, tire tracks were seen going into the river and the dive team was deployed to find the vehicle. “You can see the pickup was found and its orientation was clearly shown to be on its side. Initially we used a smaller side scan to approximate the location, but the object was just shown as a blob on the screen and not a clear image of the pickup

Every day, treasure hunters search sunken shipwrecks or sites of interest to retrieve artifacts that can be sold on the open market or donated to museums for preservation. “The practice of treasure-hunting can be controversial, as locations such as sunken wrecks or cultural sites may be protected by national or international law concerned with property ownership, marine salvage, sovereign or state vessels, commercial diving regulations, protection of cultural heritage and trade controls.

A small dive club, “The Wreckless Divers,” currently use JW Fishers’ Proton 5 magnetometer for their most important searches. The group consists of technical divers operating at depths of around 120 meters. Some dive on rebreathers while others rely on open circuit scuba. The team is based in Cape Town, South Africa. One area, Cape Point, divides the Atlantic and Indian oceans and is also known as the Cape of Storms. One team member states “there are plenty of shipwrecks along our coastline and the exact locations of most are unknown.” According to one of the founders, Bruce Henderson, the group’s mission is as follows:

According to the CDC, 3,960 fatal unintentional drownings, including boating-related drownings, occurred in 2020. To locate the missing persons and provide closure to families, it takes dive teams time to assemble, gather their equipment, and begin searching sometimes vast bodies of water. Searching via divers is not only a long process, but it adds a considerable level of risk to an already dangerous assignment. One way to avoid that elevated risk is to use modern technology to help aid in the search. Side Scan Sonar technology allows a search and recovery team to scan local waterways quickly and produce a detailed image of the bottom, regardless of water clarity. JW Fishers produces both a single frequency and dual frequency side scan as well as an affordable, and highly advanced, Compressed High-Intensity Radiated Pulse (CHIRP) system coming in Q1 of 2022!

A metal detector serves as an invaluable tool in the search for and recovery of missing, metallic evidence. This evidence can range from shotguns and handguns to ammunition and knives. As technology advances it’s not only firearms that are now being used in crimes. In today’s modern age cell phones are a massive, crime related item actively being sought by investigators on scene. Phones contain multiple sources of information that could lead investigators down the right path of case solving, becoming essential to recover. The Pulse 8X is the perfect tool to help locate that missing evidence. JW Fishers Mfg., Inc has been a leading producer of metal detectors for police, sheriff departments, government agencies and dive rescue teams. The Pulse 8X is the “go to” metal detector for those who want a commercial detector that can handle the rigors of police and underwater searching on a constant basis with a detection area unsurpassed in the industry. The Pulse 8X was rated the #1 underwater metal detector rated by The Department of US Homeland Security.

The Pulse 8X is the top-of-the-line hand held underwater metal detector sold by JW Fishers Mfg. The unit has been rated #1 by US Homeland Security and continues to be the “go-to” product for those looking to own a commercial-grade detector. Sales to military, police, search and rescue dive teams, public safety dive teams, commercial businesses, and recreational divers constitute the majority of sales year after year.

The Alaska Wildlife Troopers (https://dps.alaska.gov/AWT/Home) primary mission is to protect Alaska's Natural Resources through the enforcement of wildlife statutes and regulations. Wildlife troopers in Alaska enforce all laws. In addition to the missions of the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, officers respond to search and rescues, investigate major crimes, including homicides, and enforce traffic laws. Many AWT locations are rural, and the wildlife trooper is often the only law enforcement officer at these posts.

The Pulse 8X underwater metal detector has long been the “go to” for public safety dive teams, police departments, government agencies and other forensic teams across the globe who are tasked with locating missing evidence. This missing evidence can help solve crimes and provide families with closure. This detector that has been awarded #1 by US Homeland Security as a commercial grade detector that will locate any metallic object; which is key component to finding disposed of weapons, cell phones and any other items that criminals don’t want found.