Seatrec Wins Exclusive License from Sea-Bird Scientific to Manufacture Floats for Argo to Monitor the Global Ocean
Seatrec Wins Exclusive License from Sea-Bird Scientific to Manufacture Floats for Argo - An International Program to Monitor the Global Ocean
Seatrec selected in competitive RFP for its revolutionary advancement in ocean monitoring capabilities with its sustainable and renewable energy harvesting system
VISTA, Calif. (May 8, 2025) Seatrec, an underwater drone company, and Sea-Bird Scientific, a leading provider of oceanographic sensors and instrumentation, today announced an exclusive licensing agreement that Seatrec will manufacture Sea-Bird Scientific’s Navis floats for Argo, an international program to monitor the global ocean.
"Our mission is to monitor the ocean on a global scale,” explained Yi Chao, Ph.D., CEO and founder of Seatrec. “This agreement with Sea-Bird makes Seatrec a key provider of autonomous profiling floats to the international Argo program, especially with biogeochemical (BGC) sensors to monitor ocean ecosystems and health."
Under the terms of the agreement, Seatrec will receive exclusive rights to manufacture Sea-Bird Scientific’s Navis float product line. This strategic partnership is expected to combine the strong sensor expertise at Sea-Bird Scientific and the innovative float platform at Seatrec to provide continuous support to the international Argo Program and open new market opportunities that benefit both companies.
"This collaboration with Seatrec represents a significant step in our commitment to providing best-in-class oceanographic sensor solutions," said Jessica Pounds, President of Sea-Bird Scientific. “As we continue to focus on driving innovation in sensors and instrumentation for the entire oceanographic community, we look forward to our partnership with Seatrec to deliver industry-leading float technology to support the emerging BGC Argo Program.”
Seatrec, a dual-use deep tech startup, is the leader in the temperature-powered infiniTE™ float. Powered by a patented technology that harvests energy from ocean temperature differences, the infiniTE™ float can increase ocean data collection by up to 40 times (reducing the Argo float sampling interval of 10 days to every six hours) compared to traditional battery-powered floats, opening new possibilities for power-intensive sensors such as passive acoustic hydrophones for soundscape monitoring, addressing critical challenges in ocean science and defense applications.
Seatrec expects to take purchase orders of Navis floats in early 2026 and begin rolling out the fully integrated Navis floats with customer-requested sensors by late 2026.
About Seatrec
Seatrec designs and manufactures subsea drones that generate electricity from ocean temperature gradients. Our products empower oceanographic researchers to extend mission durations, optimize data collection, and reduce costs. By enabling the integration of advanced sensors previously limited by power constraints, such as hydrophones, we unlock new possibilities for ocean science. The core technology was developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Seatrec was incorporated in 2016 as a spinoff from the California Institute of Technology. The company is headquartered in Vista, CA. Visit us at seatrec.com.
About Sea-Bird Scientific
Sea-Bird Scientific exists to help scientists know the world — and shape policy that changes it for the better. As one of the global leaders in oceanographic instrumentation, their customers work on the leading edge of ocean science. Their results break the frontiers of what we know about natural waters and contribute to our understanding of climate change, ecosystem health, and more. From optical sensors to observational systems, they possess an expansive portfolio of accurate instrumentation that ensures we are powering science-based decisions for a better ocean. The company is based in Bellevue, Washington. Visit us at www.seabird.com.
Media Contacts:
Marta Bulaich
Seatrec Launches Initiative to Boost Cost-Effective Seafloor Mapping
Seatrec Launches Initiative to Boost Cost-Effective Seafloor Mapping by Developing Autonomous Echosounder Float Powered by Ocean’s Temperature Differences
Project funded by Schmidt Marine Technology Partners brings seafloor mapping dream team together with transformative and sustainable tech to map the 80% of ocean bottom still uncharted at high-resolution
VISTA, Calif. (Oct. 27, 2021) – Seatrec, a renewable energy company that harvests energy from temperature differences in the environment, today launches a project to develop an autonomous echosounder float powered by clean, sustainable energy. With funding from Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation founded by Wendy and Eric Schmidt, Seatrec will provide the float and power system while New Hampshire-based Airmar Technology Corporation, in collaboration with Innomar Technologie GmbH based in Germany, will provide the active acoustic echosounder for high-resolution mapping.
“Eighty percent of the seafloor has not been mapped at high-resolution - an area roughly twice the size of Mars - and covering an area that large using ships and today’s state-of-the-art autonomous platforms will cost billions of dollars,” explains Yi Chao, CEO and Founder of Seatrec. “This initiative brings together a seafloor mapping dream team with the transformative technology needed to create a sustainably powered method for mapping the ocean floor for a fraction of the cost compared to ships.”
The project is led by Larry Mayer, a professor and Director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire.
“The ocean’s resources are critical to supporting and sustaining all life on Earth and it’s shocking how little we know about something as fundamental as the seafloor,” observes Mayer. “It’s imperative that we develop the next generation of ocean mapping technologies to support the international community’s unprecedented effort to finally map the seafloor at high-resolution -- there’s no time to lose.”
Indeed, the world is racing to map the seafloor to help manage living resources, improve marine navigation, and guide infrastructure construction, as well as better defining the impacts of current and future human activity. The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project is a first-of-its-kind international effort to facilitate the complete mapping of the seafloor by 2030 and is a major contribution to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).
However, two critical obstacles stand in the way of success: energy and cost.
Mapping the 80% gaps of the global seafloor will cost an estimated $3B using ships burning diesel fuel and emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A robotic revolution resulted in the growing use of autonomous vehicles to reduce the cost of using ships and the associated carbon footprint. Seatrec’s technology to harvest energy from the ocean thermal energy is transformative and provides a cost-effective and sustainable solution to deploy a fleet of subsea robots at a fraction of the cost of ships.
“Mapping the seafloor provides fundamental and critical data we need to protect the health of our oceans but such a massive undertaking requires innovative and sustainable solutions from the best and brightest,” points out Erika Montague, the Chief Technologist of the Schmidt Marine Technology Partners. “This initiative provides a path forward towards better understanding and protection of our ocean.”
About Seatrec
Seatrec designs and manufactures energy harvesting systems that generate electricity from naturally occurring temperature differences in ocean waters. This renewable energy can be used to power deep water oceanographic research equipment such as floats, gliders, and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), resulting in the most scalable, cost-effective deep ocean data collection possible. Incorporated in 2016 by CEO, Dr. Yi Chao, Seatrec’s technology originated at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, to provide clean power for remote off-grid locations. The company is headquartered in Vista, CA. Visit us at www.seatrec.com and @seatrecinc.
Media contact
Sean Yokomizo
+1 925.878.1200
