In pursuit of environmental data

Not far from Scuttlebutt Sailing Club, the boating community now finds HyperKelp’s Smart Buoys (above) which are equipped with sensors that collect real-time data on noise, water quality, and weather. But they are within San Diego Bay, so time will tell whether science or mischief prevails.

But further out to sea, it is not uncommon for scientific equipment to be deployed to expand global knowledge of climate and the ocean. This occurred during the 2024-25 Vendée Globe, and it may become available to other sailors that want to use their own sea and ocean crossings to contribute to scientific research.

However, the sensors deployed are expensive and energy-hungry, and scientific protocols require careful implementation. To address these issues, a technological research and development project is underway to simplify data collection under sail.

The first objective is to develop and offer lower tech sensors. A prototype, validated in the Ifremer laboratories, was being tested on the Vendée Globe.

Scientists have worked on cheaper materials and a more basic design, while maintaining precision technology in measurement. The device must be able to measure the temperature and salinity of surface marine waters, with an accuracy of less than 0.02°C for the temperature.

The second challenge is to simplify the scientific protocols for collecting, transmitting, validating data, and ensuring their consistency. The idea currently being developed is in particular to use a network of nanosatellites, the size of a shoebox, which would allow scientists to transmit more data with the contribution of boaters.

Lucie Cocquempot, coordinator of oceanographic observation programs at Ifremer, feels the effort will be worth the results.

“This type of observation by sailboat is valuable for two reasons: to validate satellite measurements and to complete our scientific monitoring in areas that are difficult to access.”