Ocean survey company launches $1.6M mission out of St. Petersburg

Saildrone, a California-based maritime defense and oceanographic survey company with operations in St. Pete, recently launched two Saildrone Voyager uncrewed surface vehicles off the coast with a mission to map the ocean and gulf floor along Florida’s coastline. The project is part of the organization's Florida Seafloor Mapping Initiative.

The company notes Florida has the second largest coastline in the country behind Alaska at 1,348.37 miles. The data to be collected by the two USVs will replace outdated and low-resolution data and also serve as the first of its kind for unsurveyed parts of the coast, according to a statement. 

The $1.6 million mission is touted by the organization as an initiative led by federal and Florida state agencies and other community stakeholders to promote the need for a comprehensive high-resolution seafloor data set of Florida’s coastal waters by 2028. It will take place in a region known as Middle Grounds, northwest of St. Petersburg.