Ocean Mapper: Surveying the world's oceans - Victor Vescovo's new mission

Bathymetry - this exotic-sounding word refers to the measurement of sea beds. And the topography of the deep sea has been criminally neglected until now. Victor Vescovo is now setting out to explore the blank spots in the deep black - by means of a large-scale sonar cruise on a rather small ship. The 59-year-old Texan is a former naval officer and private equity investor and made a name for himself with the Five Deeps expedition in the world of adventurers and explorers who primarily operate on their own account.

Victor Vescovo's extreme dives

As part of "Five Deeps", Vescovo managed to dive to the bottom of the five deepest trenches on earth with a manned submersible: from the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean at a depth of 5,551 metres to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench at 10,925 metres. To do this, he sat in the submersible "Limiting Factor" built by Triton Submarines, which was accompanied by the 68-metre-long research vessel "Pressure Drop" for a good eight months.

For his latest mission, Victor Vescovo is "only" relying on a floating vessel: "Ocean Mapper", 23 metres long and designed by Espen Øino International from Monaco. The workboat will map the seabed 300 days a year using state-of-the-art sonar technology, ideally covering two million square kilometres per year. "The deep sea has fewer colours and variations overall and is therefore, in my opinion, less interesting for the average person. But that doesn't make it any less important," says Vescovo.

High efficiency for tireless sonar runs

Powered by standard diesel engines, "Ocean Mapper" is designed to run at a constant speed of ten knots. With its compact size, high level of automation and sonar-focussed hull shape, the workboat is consistently designed for deep-sea mapping. Victor Vescovo's motto for surveying the world's oceans: "'Ocean Mapper' will keep moving almost continuously to map, map some more and just keep mapping."

Interview with Victor Vescovo

Mr Vescovo, your new mission is to map the oceans. Was there a particular moment during an expedition that was related to this?

In April 2018, we held the first major meeting of all key participants in what would become the Five Deeps expedition. It was there that our lead marine geologist, Dr Heather Stewart from Scotland, spoke up and wanted to make sure we all understood one thing: We didn't know exactly where the bottom of four of the world's oceans actually was. We would first have to map the extremely deep trenches very accurately to make sure we were diving in the right place. In fact, she pointed out that there might even be two places in the Indian Ocean - thousands of kilometres apart - that could be the deepest point. I was quite shocked and ended up having to buy and install the most advanced civilian sonar that could be used on a ship. It was at that moment that I realised how little we had mapped the seabed and that this was a problem that really needed to be solved.

Now, with the 23 metre long "Ocean Mapper", you are developing a ship specifically for surveying the oceans. What were the technical requirements and challenges in relation to the sonar?

The ship is fully optimised for sonar, from bow to stern. Everything has been designed to achieve maximum mapping performance per day with the lowest operating costs but also high reliability. The hull is therefore very fuel efficient and quiet, but rolls naturally, so we had to integrate advanced stabilisation systems. It is also semi-autonomous and can be manned by just one person, so it has some advanced monitoring and warning features to allow it to operate with as little human supervision as possible. However, this was necessary as crew costs are usually the largest part of a vessel's expenditure and with our vessel these need to be kept very low without compromising crew safety or mapping costs per square kilometre.

"Ocean Mapper" doesn't look like an ordinary research vessel, the lines are from the superyacht designers at Espen Øino International. Was it part of the brief to make it look like a modern yacht?

Yes. I've always been a big proponent of industrial design and have always wondered why engineers don't always go the extra mile to make their products not only functional but also visually appealing. I think Steve Jobs at Apple understood this and realised that a really attractive design will help sell the product and get people interested. I would hope that other governments, organisations and even wealthy individuals would be interested in buying or sponsoring an ocean mapping vessel, and I knew that a sleek and modern design would - at least marginally - help with marketing. The very modern design also alludes to the very advanced capabilities of the vessel. Form and function should go hand in hand.

"REV Ocean" follows a similar approach. Are you aware of any other projects with a similar purpose and is there a platform for coordinating the areas to be mapped?

I am not aware of anyone designing and building a vessel that is fully dedicated to and optimised for ocean mapping. Most other ocean research vessels, like REV Ocean, are very large and have a large crew, but can do almost anything to explore the ocean, including deploying submersibles, operating large wet and dry labs, transporting people via helipads and even setting up media centres on board. This ship will be in almost constant motion, mapping, mapping some more and just mapping some more. We would certainly be open to exchanging ideas with other teams about world mapping requirements and priorities, but the primary aim is to absolutely maximise the efficiency of this vessel to map the unknown parts of the seabed. Taking on tasks from other parties could inevitably slow us down. But if we can cover some of our operating costs by accepting some contracts to map the priority areas of others, we would obviously consider that.

Where is "Ocean Mapper" being built?

We are looking for a shipyard. The first offers from Europe were very high, as the dollar exchange rate there is not good at the moment and everyone thought it was some kind of luxury explorer. But it is not. It's a commercial ocean-going vessel that happens to be equipped with really big sonar on the bottom. I'm actively trying to get quotes from all over the world to hopefully get a very good price for the quality we need. I was very surprised at the range of prices from different shipyards around the world for such a small - 23 metres long - and relatively simple vessel with a fairly conventional hull, materials and propulsion.

Surveying the world on land is often romanticised. Mapping the open ocean conjures up images of hours of slow and perhaps boring voyages. The state of the sea is constantly changing, but you can't see with your own eyes what lies beneath. Or is it just as exciting to constantly follow the 3D visualisation on the monitor?

Well, mapping the world we live in is certainly exciting, and I think that's because there is so much variety, colour and different landscapes. The deep sea has less colour and variation overall and is therefore, in my opinion, less interesting to the average person. But that doesn't make it any less important. As time went on, I personally found it quite exciting to watch the maps come in and map parts of the world that no one had ever seen before. Of course, I loved mapping the ultra-deep trenches, as these have some pretty dramatic terrain features, and it was great to find and even name new seamounts and ridges that we discovered elsewhere. Mapping the seabed is very exciting for a certain type of person who loves mysteries and the ocean.

You will be travelling vast numbers of nautical miles. Are you also interested in things or species outside the actual mission, as was the case with Sir Francis Beaufort?

As soon as you start adding extra requirements to an exploration, the cost goes up, the schedule gets distorted, and the mission becomes more complex. No, this ship is fully focused on its core mission, and everything is optimised towards that, so it's really just about creating as many great bathymetries as possible, as quickly as possible, at the best cost position. Certainly the ship will be able to drop micro-landers on the seabed to take images or biological samples, but that will be a secondary task and will only happen in very specific situations that really require it. For example, if we are in a particularly remote location and the scientists urgently need data on the water or the seabed in that area, we can of course stay for twelve hours to collect this unique data and share it. Maybe we'll make some interesting discoveries in addition to the mapping data, but that would be the exception. This ship and its support team will be absolutely tireless in mapping the seabed. I think we're finally getting serious as a species when we do this. It's about time.