Businessweek

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. engages in the archaeologically sensitive exploration and recovery of deep-ocean shipwrecks worldwide. Search Operations Shipwreck search operations are conducted from a research vessel fitted with survey equipment and often with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The company’s ships can conduct deep-sea search operations. A search begins with a side-scan sonar survey of the target area, which is paired with a magnetometer survey and multi-beam bathymetric surveys. The most interesting anomalies on the ocean floor are then inspected visually with an ROV, which sends real-time video images to monitors on the survey vessel for observation by the scientific and technical teams. These images are also downloaded and saved for additional evaluation ashore. Archaeological Excavation and Recovery Archaeological excavation and recovery operations combine ROVs with positioning systems, cameras and specialized computer hardware and software to carefully record the location of artifacts in situ and to document the entire archaeological process as the artifacts are recovered from a shipwreck site. The company’s ROV pilots are directed by marine archaeologists aboard the recovery vessel. The Odyssey Explorer, a 251-foot Class II dynamically positioning ship, serves as its principal deep-ocean archaeological platform for shipwreck exploration. The centerpiece of the company’s advanced robotic archaeology system is the ROV, which serves as the archaeologist’s eyes and hands in the deep ocean. The company owns two work-class ROVs, nicknamed ZEUS and ZEUS II. Both ROVs have been custom-designed for deep-ocean archaeological survey and recovery operations, including visual inspection, pre-disturbance photographic and video documentation, scientific excavation and artifact recovery. Operational Projects and Status The company has various shipwreck and other deep-ocean projects in various stages of development worldwide. Atlas Search Project Between 2005 and 2011, the company searched approximately 5,000 square nautical miles of seabed in the western English Channel and the Western Approaches to the Channel, recording approximately 300 shipwrecks. The shipwrecks discovered include site 35-F, the Marquise de Tornay, and HMS Victory (1744), as well as other identified and unidentified shipwrecks. HMS Victory Project The company completed an extensive non-intrusive preliminary survey of the Victory site. Gairsoppa Project In 2010, the company was awarded the exclusive salvage contract for the cargo of the SS Gairsoppa by the United Kingdom (UK) Government Department for Transport. The SS Gairsoppa was a 412-foot steel-hulled British cargo ship that was torpedoed by a German U-boat. In 2011, the company announced confirmation of the identity and location of the SS Gairsoppa approximately 300 miles southwest of Galway, Ireland in waters approximately 4700 meters deep. Mantola Project The company also awarded the exclusive salvage contract for the cargo of the SS Mantola by the United Kingdom (UK) Government Department for Transport. The company discovered the shipwreck approximately 2,500 meters beneath the surface of the northern Atlantic Ocean, approximately 100 miles from the SS Gairsoppa shipwreck. The company is planning to conduct the recovery expedition in conjunction with the SS Gairsoppa recovery. Robert Fraser Projects The company has agreements to provide project research and shipwreck search and survey services for a project code-named Firebrand to clients of Robert Fraser Partners LLP. The company has agreements to provide project research and shipwreck search and survey services for a project code-named Shantaram with clients of Robert Fraser Partners LLP. The survey of the Shantaram search block was completed, and targets of interest have been inspected with a ROV. In 2011, the company entered into another agreement with RFP to provide the research vessel, equipment, technical, and archaeological crew to conduct additional work on this site. The company has agreements to provide supplementary project research and shipwreck search and survey services for a project code-named Enigma II with clients of Robert Fraser Partners LLP. In 2011, the company executed an agreement to provide marine services, including mining exploration and drilling operations to client companies of Robert Fraser Partners LLP in a tenement area controlled by Neptune Minerals, Inc. Subsea Mineral Mining Exploration Projects The company owns a 25% interest in SMM Project LLC, which purchased a majority interest in Bluewater Metals Pty Ltd, an Australian company with licenses for mineral exploration of approximately 150,000 square kilometers of ocean floor in territorial waters controlled by 4 different countries in the South Pacific. The company has a long-term charter agreement for a vessel, the Dorado Discovery, a 311-foot DP2 vessel which it mobilized with advanced mining and exploration equipment. History Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. was founded in 1986.