Seafarer Announces 2nd-Gen SeaSearcher Shipwreck Exploration Vehicle

July 20, 2022

Seafarer Exploration Corp. has announced the construction of its second-generation SeaSearcher platform, which will focus on deeper water and multi-mode exploration. The upgraded design is more streamlined and rugged, designed to operate in both autonomous and towfish modes with in-field change out for high-current sites.

The new platform integrates sub-bottom imaging, side-scan sonar, precision MEMS differential magnetometer array/direction finder, video recording, and metal discrimination on a single platform. The company said all sensors will feed back to the SeaSearcher control panel,  which can be displayed or processed by the machine learning algorithms. Seafarer said the upgrades will allow the new SeaSearcher to cover more ground in a shorter time while continuing to produce results in real time.

“We have been impressed with the open water tests and live field tests on the Melbourne Beach Area 2 Ring Site where we have been working under an exploration permit from the Florida Division of Historic Resources (DHR),” said Kyle Kennedy, CEO of Seafarer. “While the SeaSearcher did not see any gold or silver on its initial scan of the Ring Site, it did identify numerous materials including brass, iron, copper, aluminum, lead, and stainless steel.”

The principal business of Seafarer is to develop the infrastructure and technology necessary to engage in the archaeologically sensitive research, documentation, exploration, recovery, and conservation of historic shipwrecks. The company said it has secured multiple sites it believes contain historic and valuable shipwrecks, and plans to use accepted archaeological methods to properly document, research and recover portions of the wrecks.

“We are now using the SeaSearcher, as weather permits, to scan several other shipwreck sites of interest,” said Kennedy. “We have part of a shipwreck in Melbourne Beach Area 1 that we call the HTQ site. Additionally, we have pieces of what appears to be a shipwreck trail that is potentially from a historic sunken fleet, though a more thorough inspection of diagnostic artifacts must be completed to fully determine its origin. We have located several shipwreck sites that are beyond the nautical three-mile mark which all need to be scanned by the SeaSearcher.”

Kennedy said other companies, both domestically and abroad, would like to lease the SeaSearcher for use on their shipwreck sites. “With all of these sites in our immediate and near future, we have plenty to keep us busy,” he said.

For more details on Seafarer and its technologies, visit its website here.

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