Back in May, I saw this orange boat a fair distance from shore, off the South Kohala coast. I knew it wouldn’t be a good photo, but I thought I’d be able to identify what it was from it. I was mistaken. I did some searching but turned up nothing. I put it to the side and kind of forgot about it.

Then, late last month, I was on the BBC website and there was a photo of a craft so similar, it had to be connected. The article (here) was about how seafaring drones are being used to collect data to help scientists figure out why some hurricanes become so dangerous, so fast. These drones operate without crew and are equipped to gather data from both the ocean and the atmosphere.

The company making the drones is called Saildrone, and I emailed them to ask about what the vessel I’d seen was up to. I received an unbelievably prompt response saying that the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa was using three drones around the state to collect information about climate change and ocean acidification and its effect on the health of the waters around Hawaii (here). It was also pointed out that since the drones carry no cargo or crew they are more properly called vehicles rather than vessels!