KIMBERLY, WI (WTAQ) – Police and Fire personnel from around the State and Minnesota participated in a boat sonar operation training in the Fox Valley.
The upgraded sonar technology allowed rescue crews to practice finding bodies, bikes and dog kennels Wednesday temporarily placed in the Fox River Wednesday morning.
Outagamie County Sheriff Deputy Mike Duven says they put together an on the water training led by Dive Rescue International.
“The instructor is going to hop on to a bunch of different boats and show us how to adjust the contrast and how to use different screens and different ranges.”
He says the department decided to work with other departments and host the unique training opportunity.
“All these departments that are here today recently got new Hummingbird Sonar and we are learning how to use it, how to read the screen and use it for search and rescue type operations.”
The teams had classroom training all day on Tuesday.
Duven says sonar like most technologies, sonar is becoming more advanced, and practice makes perfect.
“It has become much more easy to see objects on the screen and much clearer. You can look up to 175 feet on the screen.”
Duven explained that sonar helps pinpoint areas where things look different underwater. Those areas are marked during an operation and dive and rescue teams focus on those areas for their search efforts.
The agencies were from Beaver Dam, Portage County, Wisconsin DNR, Winnebago County, Wautoma, La Crosse and Anoka County, Minnesota.
“It’s a new piece of equipment,” Duven said. “Buying a new expensive piece of equipment and not knowing how to use it does not do you much good.”
