March 31, 2025 — Florida’s coastline is about to get mapped, and it’s all thanks to two unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) launched in St. Petersburg.
The USVs, managed by the company Saildrone, are helping the Sunshine State on its multiyear mission to survey coastal waters within the continental shelf.
“At 2,170 kilometers long, Florida’s coastline is second only to Alaska among U.S. states,” the company says. “Many parts of the Florida coast remain unsurveyed, with existing nautical charts relying on outdated and low-resolution data.”
The Florida Seafloor Mapping Initiative may be the solution. Saildrone explains in news releases that the “Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is managing the project, using $100 million in state funds to collect the data and create a public portal for the new imagery and information.”