Navigation requirement speeds up people's activity to ocean exploration, from manual lead line survey to echo sounding, methods of sounding improving with time. Such as sonar transport energy by sound wave and airborne bathymetric LiDAR uses doubled frequency green laser to penetrate water. In the past, bathymetric chart can be surveyed by means of echo sounder; laser scanning applications in shallow water expands the coverage of depth measurement without limitation of operational safety. In this article, shipborne sonar and airborne bathymetric LiDAR is investigated and their theory and operation method are introduced.