Continental Shelf

In the Pacific Northwest in general and in Northern California in particular, we hear a lot about logging. Here is a different take on the topic, however: underwater logging. A company called Triton Logging, based in British Columbia, uses a submersible called the Sawfish to salvage lumber from forests left standing at the bottom of dammed lakes.

The remote-controlled Sawfish can reportedly log 50 trees an hour, “of any diameter”. According to Triton Logging’s brochure, some 300 million trees have been left standing at the bottom of 45,000 dammed reservoirs, including old-growth trees. This lumber is well preserved in deep water under anoxic conditions and worth an estimated $50 billion.

Triton has three Sawfish submersibles that have been used in British Columbia, Malaysia, Thailand and Brazil. The Sawfish operator works from a barge at the surface, controlling the submersible harvester via a joystick and console. The Sawfish is connected to the operator station on the barge above by a tether that provides power, fibre optic communications, navigation, and supplies air to the airbags. These airbags are attached to the felled trees to float them to the surface; the Sawfish carries 70 airbags.

The wood thus harvested is marketed as eco-friendly SmartWood and is reportedly of architectural quality.

Triton is not the only company in this niche, but others use divers to retrieve sunk lumber already logged, or underwater saws. The Sawfish makes it a more expensive proposal but also potentially a safer and more productive one.