Wave Glider Swims 4519km Home After Helping Fight Illegal Fishing
The Wave Glider® swam 2,808 nautical miles home to the Big Island of Hawaii after successfully completing a 4-month patrol mission of the Pitcairn Island Marine Sanctuary for the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). This achievement represents a fundamental enabling capability.
- Customers can avoid the high cost and risk of deploying manned vessels for research, commerce, or defense
- Customers can deploy sensors in the most remote locations without sending a large ship for recovery
- Surveillance and patrol are now possible in large expanses of oceans previously inaccessible
Wave Glider® |
The Journey Home
After successfully completing its mission, the Wave Glider was remotely piloted more than 2,800 nautical miles home. During the journey home it:
- Swam through strong equatorial currents, doldrums, and challenging sea states
- Collected 9,516 measurements of meteorological, oceanographic, and marine biodiversity data
Pacific Journey |
Altogether, the Wave Glider was continuously at sea, untouched, for 213 days while traveling a total of 7,205 nautical miles.
Read more about the journey home here.
A photo of the return to Hawaii from the Pitcairn Island Marine Sanctuary. |