en.Wedoany.com Reported - Woolpert, an engineering consulting firm headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, is conducting the first fully uncrewed offshore hydrographic survey mission for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The company deployed uncrewed survey vessels designed and operated by Chance Maritime of Lafayette, Louisiana, equipped with Woolpert's multibeam sonar to map deep-sea coral and marine habitats off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.

For this mission, Chance Maritime deployed its new 40-foot uncrewed survey vessel, the Chance MC40, which can operate continuously at sea for over 90 days, along with a second unmanned surface vessel, the Chance MC29, to enhance data collection efficiency. Both vessels can conduct continuous remote hydrographic survey operations without any crew onboard.

Woolpert will collect high-resolution hydrographic survey data covering 1,391 square nautical miles to explore deep-sea corals and other sensitive marine habitats, identify seabed hazards, detect changes in the underwater environment, and update NOAA's nautical chart products to enhance maritime safety. Dr. Chris Taylor, an ecologist at NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, stated that the project will fill gaps in modern seabed mapping data in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, supporting the recovery of mesophotic and deep benthic communities affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Survey data is uploaded to cloud servers via Starlink satellite communications and then fed into Woolpert's automated survey production environment for post-processing. Woolpert Project Director Dave Neff noted that uncrewed vessels enable the team to collect high-quality hydrographic data more efficiently and safely, especially in challenging deep-sea environments. The survey is currently underway and is expected to be completed later in 2026.

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