Delivering Ocean News, Views, And Insights Since 1981

Latest Issue: September 2024

Remote Marine Operations

Today, no frontier is beyond an offshore operator’s capacity. While Remote Marine Operations can mean different things to different ocean professionals, all interpretations center around an ambition to safely and efficiently extend the reach of marine exploration.

Much of the recent progress has been spearheaded by the deployment of remotely operable assets capable of performing supervisory functions and intervention tasks, sometimes autonomously. These pages serve to document just how far the sector has come. Special thanks to Saildrone, Kongsberg Discovery, VideoRay, Oceaneering, Voyis, and Digital Edge Subsea.

Happy Reading!

Ed Freeman,
Managing Editor, ON&T

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This Month's Exclusive Op-Ed

Kitch Kennedy

Director of Bathymetric Program Management, Saildrone

Meme Lobecker

Technical Account Manager, Kongsberg

REMOTE OPERATIONS WILL DEMOCRATIZE OCEANOGRAPHY

Some 270 million square kilometers of seafloor have yet to be mapped with modern tools—an area that is unlikely to be achieved in our lifetime, let alone by the goal set forth by Seabed 2030, without significantly increasing global survey fleet capacity. Traditional survey ships are costly to build and operate, slow to scale, and create hardships for crew. This challenge is compounded by the urgent need for sustainable ocean practices and environmental stewardship.

By contrast, Saildrone uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) and other remotely operated or autonomous underwater vehicles are relatively inexpensive to build and operate. Saildrone USVs, equipped with the world-leading Kongsberg multibeam echo sounders, offer a readily scalable solution to dramatically expanding high-quality bathymetry data for a range of needs while reducing risk to crew and ….