Ocean Infinity Searches for Lost S.Korean Ship

The seabed survey and ocean exploration company Ocean Infinity announced that its vessel, Seabed Constructor, sets sail from Cape Town to begin the search for the lost South Korean ship, Stellar Daisy.

Stellar Daisy sank on 31 March 2017, with the tragic loss of 22 of its 24 crew.  The ship, which was transporting iron ore from Brazil to China, is believed to have gone down in the South Atlantic Ocean approximately 1800 nautical miles due west of Cape Town.

The Ocean Infinity team is expected to be on site and commencing search operations by mid-February 2019.  Ocean Infinity will use its proven approach of deploying a fleet of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) simultaneously to search for Stellar Daisy.  Upon locating the ship a survey of the wreck will be carried out, before an attempt to recover the voyage data recorder is made.

Ocean Infinity’s AUVs are the most technologically advanced in the world.  They are capable of operating in water depths from 5 meters to 6,000 meters.  The AUVs are not tethered to the vessel during operations, allowing them to go deeper and collect higher quality data for the search.  They are equipped with a side scan sonar, a multi-beam echo-sounder, a sub-bottom profiler, an HD camera, a conductivity / temperature / depth sensor, a self-compensating magnetometer, a synthetic aperture sonar and a turbidity sensor.

Oliver Plunkett, Ocean Infinity’s CEO, said: “The team and equipment are set to execute the Stellar Daisy search plan and we are pleased that our ship begins her journey today to the search area, in one of the most remote areas of the South Atlantic.  We are working closely with the Government of South Korea, and in turn with the families of the lost crew."

"We are pleased to confirm that as with our previous projects both the Government and the families are represented on board, and we will be providing regular updates on our progress back to Seoul,” he added.