The 29th Ocean Mapping Group multibeam course was recently held on October 21 - 26, 2002 at the Estuarine Habitat Research Center on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s campus. This course was hosted by C & C Technologies of Lafayette, LA and included attendees from NOAA (District Offices and the Ships RUDE and RAINIER), Naval Oceanographic Office at Stennis Labs, Geological Survey Israel, UK Hydrographic Office, Canadian Hydrographic Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Terra Survey, BHP Billiton Petroleum, Marine Sciences Research Center at Stoney Brook University, Exxon Mobil, Kongsberg Simrad, Mike Hamilton & Associates, private contractors, and employees from C&C Technologies, Inc.

The Ocean Mapping Group multibeam course is the premier class pertaining to multibeam bathymetry mapping in the world. The course consisted of 36-lectures over a period of six days. The instructors included Dr. Larry Mayer, Director of the Coastal and Ocean Mapping Center at the University of New Hampshire, Dr. John E. Hughes Clarke, Chair of the Ocean Mapping Group at the University of New Brunswick, Dr. David Wells, Adjunct Professor at the University of New Brunswick, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Southern Mississippi, and Dr. Christian P. de Moustier, Professor of Ocean Engineering at the Coastal and Ocean Mapping Center at the University of New Hampshire.

The goal of the course was to prepare and train experienced Hydrographers in the use of multibeam sonar systems. The course was primarily designed to provide a theoretical and practical background in marine swath technology. However, it was tailored for those using marine swath systems in non-traditional ocean survey fields such as continental shelf boundary delimitation, offshore engineering, harbor dredging, fisheries habitat, route survey, and scientific research fields.