PNGinc Documents

April 2003

Scan-Ahead Navigator™

Development History

Fourteen years after the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, beaches in Prince William Sound are still oozing toxic-smelling oil. Not as concentrated, but still there. Out of sight, just under the rocks. 

Although the bald eagle is still limping along in its fight against extinction, several other species in the area have lost the battle.

At the time of the disaster, we held in our hands the spill prevention technology of the century. Scan-Ahead Navigator™ had just been announced publicly, appearing in "Cruising World" and "Amiga Plus" magazines and the Great Lakes' monthly trade magazine "Seaway Review".

Technology announcements sent to U.S. Congressmen involved with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 resulted in very little response, although State Governors and foreign governments were often enthusiastic about our bold innovations.

But what really flabbergasted us was the day a U.S. EPA-SBIR program manager told us over the phone, "We aren't interested in spill prevention technologies" ( in regard to their current solicitations), " but rather in remediation." At the time, they favored double-hulling tankers, funding robotic hull inspection devices & perfecting methods of mopping up after a spill.

Major oil spills continue to plague the environment, many of them due to navigational error resulting in collision with charted obstructions. One such disaster -- the Erika oil spill off the coast of Brittany, France, in December 1999 -- spilled about 10,000 tons of crude oil into the sea. Miles of shoreline were polluted and hundreds of thousands of sea birds and other marine creatures killed.

Scan-Ahead Navigator, the PNGinc Anti-Collision Navigation System, is ready for partner participation.