WAPOLE, Mas. - In April, Harris Acoustic was invited to conduct hand held sonar training hosted by the Duxbury, MA Fire Department Dive Team. In addition to the Duxbury team, divers from a number of South Shore communities participated.

Most of these divers had responded to the December search of Great South Pond, Plymouth, MA, and saw how useful the Harris sonar was in aiding in the recovery of the two young drowning victims.

After a short classroom session on theory of operation of the DLS-1 and DLS-3 sonars, the groups conducted in-water training from the Duxbury town dock. The Duxbury Harbormaster placed a steel tank on the bottom for a target. Also, there were a number of moorings that were convenient targets for the sonars.

As a group, none of the divers had ever used hand held sonar. Also, for most of the divers, it was the first dive since early winter. Even with these challenges, the divers did very well. Most all were able to find the scuba tank and the many moorings some 30 to 40 yards off the dock. Also recovered were a stainless steel barbeque spatula and a valuable fish gaff, both probably lost during the prior boating season. Of lesser value and interest was the snow shovel that was found near the town pier.

The training exercise gave the divers confidence in the ability of the sonars to locate large and small targets.