The Saildrone Surveyor, the world’s largest uncrewed ocean mapping vehicle, surveyed more than 45,000 km2 of previously unknown ocean floor around Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and off the California coast to address ocean exploration gaps in remote areas.

The Saildrone Surveyor, the world’s largest uncrewed ocean mapping vehicle, has completed a months-long survey around Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and off the coast of California as part of a multi-agency public-private partnership funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to address ocean exploration gaps in remote areas with uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs).

CCOM researchers were on hand with the BEN ASV to assist a world-renowned team that found the pristine wreck of the Ironton at the bottom of Lake Huron.

CCOM researchers were on hand with the BEN ASV to assist a world-renowned team that found the pristine wreck of the Ironton at the bottom of Lake Huron.

CCOM researchers were on hand with the BEN ASV to assist a world-renowned team that found the pristine wreck of the Ironton at the bottom of Lake Huron.

CCOM researchers were on hand with the BEN ASV to assist a world-renowned team that found the pristine wreck of the Ironton at the bottom of Lake Huron.

CCOM researchers were on hand with the BEN ASV to assist a world-renowned team that found the pristine wreck of the Ironton at the bottom of Lake Huron.

BEN, an autonomous surface vehicle operated by CCOM's ASV Team played a key role in the discovery of the Ironton, a 19th-century shipwreck submerged hundreds of feet in Lake Huron. The discovery, made in 2019, was publicly confirmed after painstaking visual documentation was recently completed.  

CCOM researchers were on hand with the BEN ASV to assist a world-renowned team that found the pristine wreck of the Ironton at the bottom of Lake Huron.

The role of women in hydrography is increasing worldwide. In 2022, NOAA participated in the international Empowering Women in Hydrography (EWH) programme initiated by Canada and the International Hydrographic Organization, by sponsoring three early career hydrographers for underway experience aboard NOAA hydrographic ships.

Map the Gaps, a global community of ocean explorers, conservationists, educators, and early-career scientists, is approaching ocean discovery through networking, diversity, and wide-ranging projects.

Deep ocean missions, like the Okeanos Explorer's, explore little-known — or just never-visited — places on Earth.