Written by: The Maui News

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Three ocean drones will spend six months traveling around Maui, Oahu, Kauai and Hawaii island to collect data and measure ocean health across the state.

The uncrewed 23-foot Saildrone Explorers will 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 coastal waters, according to the University of Hawaii. The saildrones left from Pacific Shipyards International in Honolulu Harbor in March, and the official mission started on Saturday.

UH-Manoa, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab and the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies are working with Saildrone Inc. on the effort, which is part of the $50 million gift from Dr. Priscilla Chan and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology in 2022 to improve Hawaii’s ocean health, according to a UH news release. UH is covering the cost for two saildrones, while the cooperative institute is covering the cost of one.

The saildrones will provide information about Hawaiian island nearshore water quality and chemistry in a way that has not been previously possible using shipboard approaches, the news release said. Safety protocols during the mission include automated dynamic positioning and piloting based on real-time measurements of GPS locations, 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. Saildrone Inc. will be operating the vehicles.

Beginning off of Hawaii island, two saildrones will zigzag between the island’s coastline and just over 3 miles offshore, while the third saildrone will sail a direct continuous route around the island. 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, the news release said.

The saildrones’ integration of pH and carbon dioxide measurements will help researchers better understand whether nearshore waters are accumulating fossil fuel emissions. They will be able to develop maps from field measurements to help them look for “hot spots” of ocean acidification.

“These ocean drones will be out sampling continuously for the next six months, providing a thousand times more ocean chemistry measurements in coastal waters than has ever been available,” said Christopher Sabine, UH-Manoa interim vice provost for research and scholarship and oceanography professor in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.