Saildrone being towed through the harbor in Erie, PA

A Saildrone Explorer being towed through the harbor in Erie, PA at the beginning of a mission to collect data to improve fishery surveys in July 2023.

The wind and solar-powered uncrewed surface vehicle was launched on Lake Erie out of Erie, Pennsylvania. The vehicle is equipped with several environmental sensors both under and above the water, including a fisheries echosounder that uses sound to detect fish, much like a fish-finder on a fishing boat, and is operated by Saildrone, Inc. The saildrone will operate in Lake Erie’s western, central, and eastern basins, circumnavigating the lake in a clockwise direction through the end of September 2023.

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