- Most of us can't fully imagine what it would be like
when the whole ocean ecosystem starts collapsing.
- If our fish populations collapse,
if we lose the biodiversity, people will starve.
- We currently know more about the moon than our oceans,
and with 80% of our oceans unexplored,
they're generally viewed as an endless resource
that we can't impact.
- They're our biggest carbon sink.
We depend on them for food, transportation,
communication, oxygen,
and if we don't stop the degradation,
it's gonna have a really deleterious effect
on our health, the planet's health, and our economy.
- To fully monitor it, to fully understand it,
you have to be collecting data.
It's the only way you really are going
to get that information back.
- To observe and better understand the oceans,
Julie and Colin have built solar-powered,
autonomous boats
with advanced sensors and AI.
- We're making it easier, safer,
more affordable for ocean industries to operate out there.
To protect our oceans from harmful practices
like illegal fishing,
we have to have better technology
than we do right now.
And autonomous technology really is
our best bet at that.
- This is a show about founders
challenging the status quo.
- When you first decided
that you guys were gonna make autonomous boats,
did you have any idea what you were really
getting yourself into?
- I don't think I ever do,
and when I come up with some crazy idea, or same with Julie.
- I've been in love with the ocean for a long time.
I spent many years just exploring it.
I rode across the Atlantic Ocean with Colin,
we spent five months alone in a rowboat on the open ocean.
- We've done over 40,000 kilometers,
which is about 30,000 miles.
So, we have this very intimate knowledge of the ocean,
which I feel is lacking in this industry.
- Spending day after day
continuously surrounded by ocean,
you really feel like you're
living in a different world, and you become
very aware of the ocean in all its states,
the animals within it,
and that's definitely had a lasting impact.
Open Ocean Robotics was
a continuation of exploring the ocean.
This time instead of us going out there,
we're sending autonomous boats.
Our goal is really to enable industries
to operate sustainably on it,
to help us see our oceans because what we can't measure,
we can't protect.
What we can't see, we can't change.
If we don't understand the impacts
that we're having on our ocean,
we'll never change our behavior
because we won't know that we're making a difference.
- The conventional industry that's carrying out
the tasks that we are doing
is crude ships and crude vessels.
- You know, ships are diesel-burning.
There's always a risk of oil spills; they're loud as well.
And that means that you can't really
collect data persistently
and in challenging areas
and with a minimal amount of environmental impact.
- So now, if you're near a shore,
it's not a huge burden,
both from a resource standpoint
and from a crew standpoint,
but it's when you go offshore
that it really becomes complex and expensive
and huge amounts of greenhouse gas
emissions being emitted.
- Conventional vessels cost anywhere
from $10,000 to $80,000 a day to operate offshore.
And removing one offshore vessel for a week
is like reducing the emissions of 100 cars for a year.
- Our replacement is suddenly you're going
from a big ship full of people
to a little, 250-pound vessel
that can go out there into the biggest oceans,
into the nastiest storms, hard to believe, but they will.
And they can do the same job that these big boats are doing.
- In areas you couldn't go with a ship
for weeks or months at a time.
- Top of the vessel, we've got the solar panels.
It's an energy-harvesting boat.
So, pretty much all the energy to operate the vessel
is coming from the sun.
- We have oceanographic sensors,
things to measure water temperature,
salinity, Chlorophyll a, turbidity, fish population.
So, an echo sound measuring ocean currents
or mapping the seafloor.
- There's a speaker that goes in there;
there's also a microphone.
And then through our electronic system,
it's just like making a phone call.
You can call the boat and talk to people in the area,
it's very loud so they will hear it.
Very good for enforcement situations—
'Please move away from the whales'
or, 'You are in a restricted area.'
We had to create a boat that was really efficient.
You know, a design that's going to be able to be moved
through the water with very little energy.
The boats can not sink.
They're fully sealed.
If you look at a stormy situation,
the boat is just gonna tumble off the waves
to falling end over end, and then they're self-righting.
It's a combination of buoyancy,
so that big, red roll bar you see in the back.
So, it helps bring it right side up.
And then center of gravity which is
the weight in the bottom
and the weight of the batteries.
That's basically how our boats work.
- We've been through lots of ups and downs,
previous businesses, hurricanes, adventures.
So, we know how to ride those waves
and how to work well together.
And I think that's very helpful in growing a business.
You're gonna have struggles and
80-hour weeks and things not go right,
but there's also successes and great achievements
and making impact.
- We understand the consequences of it
and just how devastating or how wonderful it is.
So, being able to celebrate those moments together, and
I think that's a big part of our strength.
- Right now, we're a data service provider.
So, our clients say, "We have this challenge.
We need this data."
We go out and send the autonomous boats
to collect the data.
We've done illegal fishing enforcement,
environmental monitoring, marine mammal monitoring,
and other types of security applications.
- Because most illegal fishing happens
in remote areas of the ocean,
enforcement is nearly impossible.
- 30% of fish is caught illegally—
something like a 23 billion dollar problem.
One of the challenges with illegal fishing
is that it uses harmful fishing practices.
So, things like trawling,
which disrupts the seafloor
and releases huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.
In fact, trawling is thought to release
as much as the entire airline industry.
So, by having something that can go out
in these challenging, remote regions
and just stay there and monitor the ocean,
it's a step towards combating those very thorny issues.
- Almost no play, wow,
after all that work in the heavy seas.
- Yup, no, that's great.
- It's going to take more
than just Open Ocean Robotics' crafts
to fully explore the oceans.
They're just one of many companies
that are invested in resolving this global problem.
- I think autonomous technology
is going to really lead
to a shift in the way that we understand our oceans,
from seafloor to surface, across millions of miles.
And that will be transformative.
Operating on the ocean, it's not predictable.
It's vast.
There's limited communication.
It's extremely harsh.
It's difficult to retrieve anything.
The road that we're on is moving towards changing
the perception of how you get data.
And that this is just as good or even a better solution
than how things are done now.
If our oceans stop absorbing
the same amount of carbon dioxide they have,
we're gonna see an acceleration in climate change.
So, no matter where you are,
it's our duty as a species to protect them
so that we can continue to benefit from them
in the way that we do.
And then they can stay healthy for our children
and our children's children.