Saildrone’s autonomous Surveyor SD-3001 has completed a groundbreaking deepwater multibeam survey of the Cayman Islands’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), delivering the first comprehensive map of any Caribbean nation’s waters. This mission, spanning roughly 300 days and covering 90,000 square kilometers, marks a significant leap forward in maritime data collection for small island nations.
Traditional vessel-based mapping is often prohibitively expensive for many Caribbean countries. However, generous philanthropic funding from the London & Amsterdam Trust Company Limited, combined with the endurance and efficiency of the Saildrone Surveyor, created a unique opportunity for the Cayman Islands to establish a complete, modern baseline of its marine environment. This effort offers valuable lessons for future autonomous mapping campaigns, particularly for developing Caribbean states seeking cost-effective ways to chart their waters and manage their maritime resources.
The Cayman EEZ presented numerous operational challenges, including unprecedented sargassum blooms. The Saildrone team had to refine its operating procedures to manage repeated encounters with dense mats of floating seaweed. This included developing new approaches to clearing the sound velocity profiler (SVP) and enhancing remote diagnostics to detect biofouling early—critical steps to ensure clean, reliable multibeam data. The Surveyor also endured multiple severe-weather systems and extended periods of high sea states, validating its capability to remain on survey up to sea state seven.
The autonomy and endurance of the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) allowed the Saildrone team to maintain survey progress through long stretches of remote ocean without human presence onboard. Watchstanders monitored the mission continuously from thousands of miles away, using Saildrone’s Mission Portal to assess coverage, quality, environmental conditions, and system health in near real-time. This remote-operations model, central to the success of the Cayman campaign, demonstrated how small island nations can access global-standard hydrography without owning, maintaining, or staffing a survey vessel.
The Surveyor’s integrated multibeam suite—Kongsberg EM 304 MKII and EM 2040 MKII systems—proved capable of achieving high-quality data across a depth range from 20 meters to 7,000 meters, filling critical gaps in previously uncharted seabed. Equally important was the performance of Saildrone’s co-developed, inductively charged AML Oceanographics SVP system, designed for remote operation and long-duration endurance. The ability to execute 900+ SVP casts without manual intervention ensured consistent data accuracy across the mission.
The team also refined cloud-based data processing workflows, enabling preliminary products to be reviewed during the mission rather than months later. Combined with persistent satellite connectivity, this approach shortened the feedback loop, improved quality control, and ensured that the Cayman Government and the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) received high-confidence data sets for charting and long-term marine planning.
For many islands with developing economies, the barrier to comprehensive ocean mapping is not only cost but also logistics, including vessel charter fees, fuel, crew, mobilization, demobilization, and long transits to deepwater survey grounds. The Cayman project demonstrated that an autonomous platform can significantly reduce these burdens. The Surveyor required minimal shoreside infrastructure and operated entirely without local crew—an enormous advantage for nations without hydrographic departments or survey vessels.
Prior to the Saildrone survey, only 20,000 square kilometers of the Cayman EEZ had been surveyed with modern multibeam sonar technology, concentrated around the deep waters of the Cayman Trench. One of the priorities of the mission was to survey four fishing banks—60 Mile Bank, Lawfords Bank, Pickle Bank, and 12 Mile Bank—which serve as crucial hotspots of biodiversity supporting fisheries, tourism, and recreation, and are indicators of the health of the Cayman Islands’ marine ecosystem.
Now, for the first time in the nation’s history, the Government will possess a complete, modern baseline of its marine domain—data that would otherwise have been financially unattainable. As the raw data transitions to the UKHO for processing, and later to Seabed 2030 for global mapping contributions, the Cayman mission serves as a blueprint for how autonomous systems can help growing island states access the same level of marine intelligence as the world’s largest economies.
“This mission is a testament to the power of autonomous technology in democratizing access to critical maritime data,” said a Saildrone spokesperson. “By leveraging the endurance and efficiency of the Saildrone Surveyor, we’ve shown that even the most remote and resource-constrained nations can achieve comprehensive ocean mapping, supporting sustainable fisheries management, offshore energy planning, resource exploration, maritime security, and the protection of fragile habitats.”
The success of the Cayman Islands project