Seafarer Exploration Corp
Technology
+Innovation
Seafarer Exploration Corp is innovating how underwater history is discovered, conserved, and experienced. In pursuit of that mission, Seafarer has developed and continuously advances breakthrough technologies and state of the art processes essential to the unique demands of underwater rescue archaeology.
Rapid innovation at Seafarer Exploration Corp is propelled by the company’s multi-disciplinary team of experts and a unique culture that encourages collaborative problem-solving and the agile development of new technologies and industry best practices.
SeaSearcher
SeaSearcher, Seafarer Exploration Corp’s proprietary underwater exploration platform, has revolutionized how the location, depth, size, and composition of buried objects are determined.
Automatic Target Discrimination software searches for attributes associated with targets of interest, while precise underwater GPS measurements allow each object to be located and marked for further investigation. Locations of interest are also automatically registered and added to a database for future reference.
By scanning shipwrecks or submerged sites in this way, SeaSearcher radically reduces the time and resources required to explore an underwater site. It also enables surgical archaeological investigations that drastically minimize environmental and site disturbances.
"Ultimately this technology and the approach that we're using is based upon something that's repeatable. It isn't about one shipwreck, it about doing it on multiple shipwrecks."
Key Features:
- Differentiation of Metals
- Autonomous or Remote Piloting Modes
- On Board Command, Control, and Navigation Ability to Cruise or Hover
- 3D High Resolution Sub-Bottom Imaging and Profiling Array
- Wireless Data Transmission to Companion Vessel or Shore Vehicle
SeaVac 3000
Seafarer developed the first-ever autonomous dredge to meet both DEP requirements and archaeological standards for sediment displacement during underwater digs.
The self-contained SeaVac3000 can dredge and screen sediment without a surface tether, allowing it to operate in challenging underwater conditions or at depths where standard surface dredging equipment cannot go.
Divers deploy this precision excavation dredge to vacuum up sediment and capture small artifacts. It features a double-screening mechanism that surpasses the archaeology industry-standard quarter-inch mesh size, utilizing finer screens to capture even the smallest artifacts.
The SeaVac3000 was presented in 2024 at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Society of California Archaeology and is currently in trial deployment under a United States Army Corps of Engineers permit.
Archaeology Lab
Preserving History with Precision: Inside Our State-of-the-Art Archaeology Lab
In the lab, artifacts recovered by Seafarer Exploration Corp are meticulously conserved, documented, and reported in ways that meet or exceed customary archaeological practices and permit requirements.
Though much of the lab’s equipment is standard archaeological tools, such as reverse electrolysis electronics, water deionization filters, and other chemistry- or physics-related conservation means, other items are industry-leading. This more costly high-tech toolkit includes XRF (x-ray refraction), which analyzes chemical composition, an x-ray machine to see inside conglomerated objects, and rock cutting and polishing devices for geoarchaeological research.
Conserving all Seafarer discovers at a site requires time, dedication, investment, and ingenuity.
One current Seafarer effort designed to reduce these time-investment costs is a partnership with Codifi® FDM (field data management), a cutting-edge data collection and management software company. Specifically, Seafarer and Codifi are designing a program to allow advanced artifact tracking. This way, all of Seafarer’s artifacts are best documented from the moment of discovery, through the conservation process, and into the curation and research “life” of each item.
