|
Press Releases - February 2005
February 24, 2005- Odyssey Marine Exploration
Concludes Atlantic Operations and Moves to Mediterranean
February 22, 2005- Maritime Heritage Center
offers six-week ROV course for middle-schoolers
February 15, 2005- Under Ice Search Uses
Multiple Micro-ROVs - VideoRays Used in Unique Shallow-water Search
February 9, 2005- Benthos Announces First
Quarter 2005 Profit on Sales Increase of 31%
February 3, 2005- ROV Kaiko discovers life
flourishes at 10,896 m below the surface
Past press releases are also available:
Current Press Releases
Date: February 24, 2005
Organization: Odyssey Marine Exploration,
Inc.
Odyssey Concludes Atlantic Operations and Moves to Mediterranean
Tampa, Fla. (Business Wire)- Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., a leader in
the field of deep ocean shipwreck exploration, has concluded current operations
on the SS Republic shipwreck site and other sites in the Atlantic. The company's
251' deep ocean archaeological platform, the Odyssey Explorer, is now en route
to the western Mediterranean to begin operations shortly after arrival.
The SS Republic was a paddlewheel steamer that sank during a hurricane in 1865
while en route from New York to New Orleans with post-war supplies and currency.
Odyssey Marine Exploration discovered the shipwreck in August of 2003 nearly 1700
feet below the surface of the Atlantic. Odyssey was awarded title and ownership
to the SS Republic shipwreck and cargo in March 2004.
In October of 2003, during the pre-disturbance survey of the site, the shipwreck
was positively identified as the SS Republic when the ship's bell was located.
Shortly after commencement of the archaeological excavation of the site, a substantial
number of gold coins were revealed using Odyssey's Sediment Removal and Filtration
(SeRF) system. More than 51,000 coins have been recovered including $20.00 Double
Eagles, $10.00 Eagles, Half Dollars and a few Quarter Dollars.
Unlike other recently salvaged shipwrecks, a wide variety of dates and mints have
been noted in this find. The collection includes many finest-known examples of
United States gold and silver coins from the period. According to John Albanese,
Numismatic Marketing Strategist for Odyssey, the retail value of coins recovered
to date is expected to exceed $75 million dollars.
Coins from the SS Republic have been professionally conserved by Numismatic Conservation
Services, a leading authority in numismatic conservation, and graded and encapsulated
by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation.
In addition to the coins, approximately 14,000 artifacts have been recovered from
the SS Republic. Artifacts recovered include more than 200 different bottle varieties,
religious artifacts, ceramics, pottery and some personal effects. Many artifacts
and rare items of cargo will be kept in Odyssey's permanent collection for exhibit
and study. Some of the cargo items and trade goods (bottles and other cargo) will
be released for sale through http://www.ssrepublic.com.
During the SS Republic archaeological excavation, the Remotely Operated Vehicle
(ROV), ZEUS completed 262 dives to the shipwreck site and debris field, logging
almost 3500 hours of bottom time. The longest dive made by ZEUS lasted 72.5 straight
hours.
A database with over 60,000 records was created by the team as they recorded excavation
and survey activities on the site. More than 13,000 underwater digital still photographs
and over 3500 hours of high resolution video on DVDs and tape have been recorded
while surveying and excavating the site. A high definition video camera system
was integrated into the ZEUS/Odyssey Explorer system which produced beautiful
HD video of the shipwreck site as well.
"Our offshore team has been doing things that have never been done before and
we are setting high standards for deep ocean archaeology," stated Greg Stemm,
Odyssey co-founder. "The Explorer's work on the SS Republic site was a fantastic
testing ground to prepare our equipment and our team for our next high profile
projects. Based upon the experience we gained through the Republic recovery, we
believe that we could now perform an archaeological recovery on a similar vessel
in substantially less time."
Odyssey's SS Republic project has been the subject of a one-hour National Geographic
Ultimate Explorer television episode, Dateline NBC, a one-hour National Geographic
Special, "Civil War Gold" that aired on PBS, and a feature article in National
Geographic magazine. The project has also been featured in hundreds of media stories
around the world including coverage on the Oprah show, ABC's Good Morning America,
CBS Early Show, NBC Today show, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News and the
New York Times.
The coins recovered from the SS Republic shipwreck site to date represent approximately
25% of the face value that research indicates was on board the Republic when it
sank in 1865. When the additional coins expected on the shipwreck site were not
found within the main hull area, Odyssey began to search the debris field. The
additional coins were not located in the recently completed debris field search,
but Odyssey intends to return to the shipwreck site in the future with additional
technology and equipment.
"We hoped that we could locate the remainder of the coins in the debris field,
but it looks like we will have to come back at a later date," commented John Morris,
Odyssey CEO. "In spite of some really nasty weather out there in January and February,
we have completed a search of that area that could be efficiently covered by our
current technology. A more thorough exploration of the debris trail can probably
be done later given some additional time with some more advanced sensing technology,
but it is time to move on to our next project and get started as soon as possible."
In addition to the work on the SS Republic shipwreck site, the Odyssey Explorer
also mapped the shipwreck site known as the "Blue China" and did a preliminary
excavation recovering 400 artifacts. An additional unidentified 18th Century shipwreck
site was also explored and surveyed.
Odyssey Marine Exploration is an American Stock Exchange Company (Ticker symbol:OMR)
with several shipwreck projects in various stages of development throughout
the world. Additional information about Odyssey, its projects and equipment
is available at http://www.shipwreck.net.
Contact information: Odyssey Marine Exploration (Tampa,
Florida)
Laura Lionetti Barton, 813-876-1776 ext 2562
LLB@shipwreck.net
Date: February 22, 2005
Organization: Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center ,
Inc.
Maritime Heritage Center offers six-week ROV course for middle-schoolers
Gloucester, Mass (Gloucester Daily Times Editorial: Learning By Doing)- Kids
learn by reading, by listening to their teachers explain things, by memorizing
everything from math tables to formulas, by writing and by observing what happens
in scientific experiments. But, as the Maritime Heritage Center is demonstrating
in a six-week course for middle-school students, they also learn by doing -
in this case by building underwater robots. For some of them, it offers one
of the most exciting and fulfilling learning experiences of their academic careers.
The robots, more precisely called remote operated vehicles or ROVs, are designed
to take a camera up to 60 feet below the ocean surface, where three motors attached
to a 12-volt battery allow the students to "drive" them in different directions.
The students gain a variety of skills and knowledge from both the process and
the result. They work with power tools. They have to follow directions precisely,
soldering wires to the correct terminals, or their ROV won't work properly.
And when they finish, they will become neophyte marine biologists, able to observe
undersea life by remote control of a vehicle they made themselves. That part of
it, says Center Director Anne Ogilvie, is easy, since most kids are already masters
of sophisticated video games.
It is no surprise that the course, first offered last summer, has now expanded
to offer one in every season. The next one begins May 3.
The Center deserves credit for offering a course that combines scientific inquiry
with hands-on mechanical training. But beyond that, it deserves credit for helping
kids to see that learning can be fun as well as demanding.
Fore more information about the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center click
here.
Date: February 15, 2005
Organization: VideoRay,
Inc.
Under Ice Search Uses Multiple Micro-ROVs - VideoRays Used in Unique
Shallow-water Search
New Orleans, LA (PRWEB) - VideoRay announced today at Underwater Intervention
the details of an unprecedented search using multiple VideoRay micro-ROVs in
extreme conditions. The 3-day search took place from January 9th through the
11th on the frozen St. Lois River in Duluth, Minnesota.
Jim King the owner of Spirit Lake Marina off the St. Louis River fell out of his
rear-tiller motorboat while marking the location of buoys on October 25, 2004.
Since the accident there has been an ongoing search with no successful results
largely because of large area and lack of witnesses who could identify a 'point
last seen'. Since the accident the St. Louis County Sheriffs office has logged
more than 3,000 hours of search time.
The latest effort to recover Mr. King's body came in January when the St. Louis
County Sheriffs office organized a massive, rather unique search. The search occurred
on the St. Louis River which was frozen over more than 15 inches. Eight VideoRay
micro-ROVs were used for the search. The Sheriffs office developed a search grid
covering a square half mile area.
We began the mission with meticulous planning and equipment testing stated Robin
McCauley 1st Lieutenant St. Louis County Volunteer Rescue Squad. VideoRays, generators,
tents, heaters, and other equipment required were pulled out onto the ice by snowmobiles
and all terrain vehicles. Holes in the ice were cut with an 'ice saw" - a
standard Stihl chain saw with environmentally friendly lubricant.
Six identical micro-ROVs were operated simultaneously from portable ice houses
on the frozen river. Each VideoRay was equipped with a Desert Star Pilot positioning
system to track the ROVs and transmit the data wirelessly to the command center
about a half mile from the tracking station.
"As far as we know, this is the first time in the world anyone has had this many
ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) together to search for a body," commented Tom
Crossmon of the St. Louis County Rescue Squad. Crossmon also said the worldwide
ROV community is small; when they e-mailed members looking for advice, no one
said they had encountered such a large recovery operation.
In addition to the rescue squad, Mark Gleason of Michigan Technical University
participated with his VideoRay Pro III unit, the local US Coast Guard Duluth Station,
and Douglas County, and Lake County sent several people to assist. VideoRay sent
Scott Bentley, President, and Marcus Kolb, Director of Research and Development.
VideoRay donated the use of six VideoRay Pro units, and used the operation to
conduct research into the use of micro-ROVs for a large scale, shallow water,
under ice search.
"The result of the search was better than expected - we were able to search
a large section of the river. We did not find the body - but we know far
better where it is not located. We also learned that sonar was a critical tool
in this kind of search due to the severely restricted visibility of the water.
We recommend that VideoRay owners use the new "performance tether" when operating
in this kind of high current environment, since it has much less drag, and with
multiple holes and shallow water we did not need to use very long sections of
tether. Finally, the positioning system was key to making sure that the areas
searched were the areas we expected," stated McCauley.
For comments, contact: David Phillips, Undersheriff, St. Louis County Sheriff's
Office, Duluth, MN; Phone: 218-726-2339
For pictures and videos online, visit http://www.videoray.com/Press_Room/press_release.htm
Contact VideoRay Public Relations: Chris Gibson, ph: 610-458-3000
Contact VideoRay LLC, 400 Eagleview Blvd. Exton, PA 19341 USA; Phone: (610)
458-3000 FAX: (610) 458-3010 www.videoray.com
All brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Date: February 9, 2005
Organization: Benthos,
Inc.
Benthos Announces First Quarter 2005 Profit on Sales Increase of 31%
North Falmouth, Mass.- (Business Wire)- Benthos, Inc. (NASDAQ: BTHS) today
reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2005 ended December
31, 2004. Net sales for the quarter were $5,019,000, an increase of 31.3% from
sales of $3,823,000 in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year. Net income
for the quarter was $161,000, or $0.10 per diluted share, compared to a net
loss of $187,000, or ($0.14) per share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2004.
In the Undersea Systems Division, first quarter 2005 sales were $3,424,000, a
39.7% increase compared to sales of $2,451,000 in the same period last year. Sales
in the TapTone Package Inspection Systems Division in the first quarter of fiscal
2005 were $1,595,000, a 16.3% increase from sales of $1,372,000 in the first quarter
of fiscal 2004.
Commenting on today's announcement, Ronald L. Marsiglio, Benthos President and
CEO, said, "We are pleased to report a strong first quarter and good start to
fiscal 2005. Sales in both of our Divisions are up over the prior year's first
quarter, and gross profit as a percent of sales was 41.0% compared to 37.7% in
the same period of fiscal 2004."
Marsiglio continued, "The Undersea Systems Division is showing steady growth and
we continue to receive significant orders. These include a $1 million order for
GeoPoint(TM) hydrophones announced in early January, as well as another recent
order of approximately $750,000 for additional GeoPoint hydrophones. These hydrophones
are used for offshore oil and gas exploration, a market sector that remains active
for Benthos."
"In addition, Canada Border Services Agency (formerly Canada Customs and Revenue
Agency) has recently ordered another five Stingray remotely operated vehicle (ROV)
systems to be added to the fleet of five systems that were put into use throughout
Canada in March 2004. The units have proven to be highly successful in finding
and identifying objects illegally attached to ship hulls below the water line
and will continue to be used by the Canada Border Services Agency in port and
harbor security operations. The Stingray ROV is an inspection class ROV well-suited
for these applications."
"During the quarter, a C3D(TM) swath bathymetry system was delivered to the U.S.
Navy. This marks the first sale of the C3D system in the United States and is
another sign of progress in gaining industry acceptance of this exciting new technology."
"The TapTone Package Inspection Systems Division is off to a good start in fiscal
2005. Leading the way are the new TapTone 500 force and compression leak detection
systems. These systems are designed for the inspection of carbonated and liquid
nitrogen dosed beverage containers, as well as non-pressurized flexible plastic
containers. TapTone products now cover the full spectrum of food, beverage, dairy,
pharmaceutical and chemical processors' inspection needs."
Marsiglio concluded, "While the timing of large orders may cause some unevenness
in quarterly sales, we believe Benthos is on track for another solid year of improvement."
Benthos, Inc., through its Undersea Systems Division, designs, manufactures, sells
and services a variety of oceanographic products for underwater tasks; and through
its TapTone Package Inspection Systems Division makes systems for testing consumer
packages made of glass, metal or plastic. The common stock of the Company is traded
on the Nasdaq SmallCap market under the symbol BTHS. For more information, Benthos
can be found on the Internet at www.benthos.com.
Date: February 3, 2005
Organization: Shizuoka
University
ROV Kaiko discovers life flourishes at 10,896 m (35,748 ft) below the
surface
Marianas Trench, Japan (BBC)- Tiny single-celled creatures, many of them previously
unknown to science, have been found at the deepest point in the world's oceans,
almost 11km down. The soft-walled foraminifera, a form of plankton, were recovered
by the Japanese remote submersible Kaiko. Yuko Todo and colleagues report their
discovery in Science magazine.
They say the organisms have become adapted to the crushing pressures that exist
in a location of the Marianas Trench known as Challenger Deep. This hole in the
ocean floor is totally dark and the immense column of water above pushes down
with a force that is over a thousand times greater than that at the surface -
about 110,000 kilopascals.
Foraminifera are thought to be the most abundant form of life in the seas after
bacteria. They typically have shells, but these organisms are soft because there
is insufficient calcium carbonate at such depth to build hard parts.
Kaiko pulled the foraminifera out of the top centimetre of sediment at Challenger
Deep, 10,896m (35,748ft) below the surface.
The Marianas Trench forms part of the subduction zone where the west Pacific oceanic
floor is being pulled under the Philippine tectonic plate. The team says the deepest
trenches of the western Pacific were formed about six to nine million years ago.
They write in Science: "The lineage to which the new soft-walled foraminifera
belong includes the only species to have invaded fresh water and land, and analysis
of the new organisms' DNA suggests they represent a primitive form of organism
dating back to Precambrian times from which more complex multi-chambered organisms
evolved."
Similar, though not identical, groups have been found in other, slightly shallower,
ocean trenches, they add. The foraminifera probably ingest particles of organic
matter that rain down from higher up in the water column or materials that are
dissolved in the seawater.
Challenger Deep was discovered in 1951 by the Royal Navy ship Challenger 2 - hence
the name. Kaiko was lost on a mission to the Nankai Trough in 2003. There is currently
no remotely operated vehicle in service that can reach the bottom of the Marianas
Trench.
The Science team comprises members from Shizuoka University; the Japan Agency
for Marine-Earth Science and Technology; Nagasaki University; and the Southampton
Oceanography Centre.
|
