Scientists recover memory cards from underwater robot Gull in Pine Island Bay

Scientists aboard the icebreaker Araon retrieved two memory cards from a yellow underwater robot named Gull in Pine Island Bay, Antarctica.

Gull was deposited in the bay on Jan. 14 to collect oceanographic measurements, diving repeatedly and traveling in a rectangle 22 miles by 11 miles. A colleague in California fed the robot instructions by satellite, and the glider reported its position by satellite when it surfaced. The retrieval team lowered an inflatable boat, sighted Gull’s bobbing tail from several thousand feet, and, after nearly running over it, used oars and a pole to haul the six-foot robot aboard.

The recovery followed concerns after two oceangoing robots were lost at sea in 2024; Won Sang Lee, the chief scientist, had said, "I don’t want to lose another one." Brenna Hatch, a University of California, Davis master’s student on the team, said, "Science is 80 percent troubleshooting." The next morning the team unscrewed the robot’s nose and tail and removed two two-gigabyte memory cards, and the researchers said they plan to return Gull to the water for another mission soon.

Key Topics

Science, Gull, Pine Island Bay, Araon, Uc Davis, Won Sang Lee