Stellar Daisy wreck located by Ocean Infinity

The wreck was found in 10 days after Ocean Infinity’s vessel Seabed Constructor sailed from Cape Town on 8 January to begin the search.

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Stellar Daisy, which sank on 31 March 2017 while transporting iron ore from Brazil to China, was located at a depth of 3,461 metres in South Atlantic Ocean.

Working from Seabed Constructor, the search operation involved the deployment of four autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) which over 72 search hours explored approximately 1,300 sq km of seabed.

“We are pleased to report that we have located Stellar Daisy, in particular for our client, the South Korean Government, but also for the families of those who lost loved ones in this tragedy,” said Oliver Plunkett, ceo of Ocean Infinity.

“Through the deployment of multiple state-of-the-art AUVs, we are covering the seabed with unprecedented speed and accuracy,” Plunkett said.

Ocean Infinity said that its AUVs are capable of operating in water depths from five metres to 6,000 metres, and they are not tethered to the vessel during operations, allowing them to go deeper and collect higher quality data for the search.

The AUVs are equipped with a side scan sonar, a multi-beam echo-sounder, a sub-bottom profiler, an HD camera, a conductivity/temperature/depth sensor, a self-compensating magnetometer, a synthetic aperture sonar, and a turbidity sensor.

The sinking of the Polaris-owned VLOC Stellar Daisy had resulted in the deaths of 22 crew members.

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