Ocean users are cautioned to keep far from three uncrewed Saildrone Explorer research vessels that have been deployed around the Hawaiian Islands to help look for signs of climate change.
The 23-foot, bright orange surface vessels are measuring ocean data around Oahu, Hawaii island, Maui and Kauai, cruising between the coastline and 3.1 miles offshore. People and other vessels are urged to stay at least 1,600 feet away.
The drones “look like sailboats, and they’re working very close to shore, so if you see them please don’t touch them or interfere with their operations,” Christopher Sabine, University of Hawaii at Manoa interim vice provost for research and scholarship, said in a UH news release. “They are being remotely piloted and they’re operating in safe waters.”
The UH statement said the Saildrones have “advanced safety protocols,” including automated dynamic positioning and piloting based on real- time measurements of GPS location, winds and currents; 24/7 on-watch mission managers to oversee all operations; Automatic Identification System for identifying and avoiding other vessels; and highly visible lights and markings.
Meanwhile, several buoys are collecting water-quality data, working in conjunction with the drones: One buoy was deployed off Maui in May, and one each off Kauai and Hawaii island will be set up this summer, joining two existing buoys off Windward Oahu that have been collecting data for more than 10 years.
The drones and buoys “will work together to send back critical data and images in real time to scientists in Hawaii and Washington state so they can assess how climate change and ocean acidification are impacting our coastal waters,” the news release said.
The instruments will only monitor atmospheric and ocean properties, and will not collect any data that can be used to identify people, marine mammals or fish locations, UH said.
Amy Markel, a UH Manoa doctoral student in oceanography, said the data collection is “important for Hawaii because it’ll tell us more about different hot spots around each of the islands, where we might want to pay attention to how the water chemistry and water quality is changing in those areas.”
The project is a collaboration of UH Manoa; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab; the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies; and Saildrone Inc. The effort is funded by a portion of a $50 million gift from Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg to the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology in 2022 to improve Hawaii’s ocean health.
