Following a successful first day, Oceanology International Americas expo and conference got down to the serious business of networking, partnerships, change delivery and real-world scenarios on Day 2.

This three-day event, last held in 2019, is the largest ocean technology trade show & conference in the US. As Event Director David Ince commented: “To meet the future challenges we need a mix of the awe inspiring future technologies that are in evidence throughout the show floor here today, along with proven present and near future technologies.”

On the expo floor, Bristol, Rhode Island headquartered Jaia Robotics, Inc., a leader in low-cost, micro-sized autonomous marine vehicles, confirmed and announced a new strategic partnership with Marine Acoustics, Inc. (MAI) to add a passive acoustic capability onto the JaiaBot hybrid autonomous surface / underwater vehicle.

MAI’s extensive expertise in the collection, analysis, and modelling of underwater acoustics data has earned them an excellent reputation in the Environmental Services, Energy, and Defense sectors. Their experienced and highly qualified engineering team will lead the selection and development of the passive acoustic system, the sales and marketing of the JaiaBot-ECHO, and develop new deployment opportunities.

JaiaBots can be operated individually or in multi-vehicle fleets at depths from 1m to 100m and in a wide variety of aquatic environments including open ocean, surf zones, estuaries, rivers, and lakes.

“The addition of an acoustic sensing capability opens a wide variety of new markets including the offshore renewable energy sector, defense, and the fast-growing aquaculture and fisheries industries” said Ian Estaphan Owen, CEO and Co-Founder of Jaia Robotics. “OiA has been a key tool in raising awareness around JaiaBots”, continued Ian: “The networking [here at OiA] is tremendous, finding new customers who we didn’t know could be customers and developing new leads.”

All Oceanology international events attract a worldwide audience and this year’s OiA has been no exception attracting trade delegations from, among other places, Canada, Scandinavia and the UK.

Tim Benzie, Innovation & Growth Specialist at Greenwich Research and Enterprise and Innovate UK EDGE arranged the UK delegation saying: “It’s been a delight to bring 15 amazing UK companies to OiA for the first time, and they’ve made some great connections with US ocean tech businesses and researchers. The event has showcased a wide range of technologies and expertise and we’ve been warmly welcomed. We look forward to developing our relationship further and can’t wait for OIA 2025.”

One great example of the UK companies with an eye on the US ocean tech space is Artemis Technologies. This Belfast-based foiling electric workboat and fast ferry developer sent Business Development Manager John Patterson over to San Diego with Innovate UK. John presented an on-stand interactive demo showing the potentially huge CO2 and fuel savings offered by foiling catamaran ferries, like the Artemis EF-24 Passenger, on Californian routes from San Pedro, Long Beach and Dana Point to Catalina Island. John said: “The combination of OiA, and the Blue Economy Incubator in San Diego, make this the perfect opportunity for Artemis Technologies to showcase our world leading advanced platform design. Through the combination of the Artemis eFoiler, flight control system and 100% electric propulsion, we are enabling operators in the workboat, crew transfer, and passenger ferry sectors to decarbonise while also making significant reductions in their annual operating costs.”

In the OiA conference, Brad Ack Executive Director and Chief Innovation Officer, Ocean Visions spoke during this morning’s lively session- Delivering Net Zero: Offshore renewable energy and ocean carbon sequestration. Ocean Visions is advancing a new agenda for the ocean, focused on directly addressing the greatest cause of harm – greenhouse gas pollution that is driving existential threats to the ocean. “What we need is a new DARPA to generate actual solutions to the problem. Not more information that we can ignore,” said Brad Ack.

In this afternoon’s session- End-use Case Studies in Understanding, Managing and Protecting the Coastal Marine Environment, Cody Warner, Director of Sales & Marketing for Deep Trekker used examples of real world implementations to show how small platform inspection class ROVs can offer rapid deployment and quick answers.

Oceanology International Americas runs until 16 February 2023.

Conference badges start at $300, while admission to the show floor is FREE, providing attendees have REGISTERED HERE