Mission Description

Saba, the unspoiled Queen of the Caribbean. Five square miles of gorgeous volcanic rock and lush vegetation emerge from the deep Caribbean Sea. A preeminent dive location surrounded by pinnacles rising over one thousand feet from the seafloor below.

This isolated jewel became a hideout and hub of pirate activity during the golden age of piracy. Captured ships were unloaded, plundered goods were stored, and vessels that could not be sold were stripped and sunk in the deep water just offshore.

Divers have explored only the shallow tips of the deep pinnacle gardens. What lies at the base of these towering giants? Researchers have found numerous references to vessels being sunk, yet no one has searched for these historic vessels.

Mission Goals

Our goal is to conduct an extensive mapping survey of the offshore area around Saba.

The primary wide area mapping instrument will be a 400 kHz multibeam echosounder coupled with a high performance IMU and L1/L2 GPS system aided by WBAAS correction from MarineStar. The overall system positioning accuracy will be approximately 10 cm horizontal and vertical with sounding densities estimated to be ~50-100 soundings per m2. Final data products will include georeferenced XYZ point clouds, side-scan sonar raster mosaics (50 cm/pixel), and gridded DEMs (100 cm/pixel). Once targets of interest are determined from the wide area survey the team will then operate detailed submersible and ROV inspections of targets using assets aboard the M/V Odyessy.