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).

Researchers have recently explored uncharted territory off the coast of Alaska and California using Saildrone Surveyor, an uncrewed surface vehicle, that spent 52 days scanning 10,000 square miles of the Aleutian Islands alone. 

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.

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 CCOM ASV Team was were part of a multi-institutional effort that discovered an intact shipwreck from the 19th century hundreds of feet below the surface 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.