Our Research
Boats

Archipelagos’ boats serve as mobile platforms for our marine research and conservation work. They support our actions on the Greek seas and in the broader area of the eastern and central Mediterranean.

Flag: Dutch
Port of registry: Amsterdam Main
Port of Operation: Lipsi, Greece
Type: Motor Boat                 
Engines:  2* Caterpillar 450HP
Generators: 1*22 kVA & 1* 6 kVA
Length: 21.74 m
Width: 5.68 m
Draft: 2.65 m
Weight: 60 tonnes
Water capacity:  2.5 tonnes
Fuel capacity:  4 tonnes
Crew capacity: 25
Other: Desalination unit, Bow thruster, Stabilizer, Hydraulic anchor winch, 2 Radar Units 36 knots

Main Equipment:
- Biomass Scanner Simrad EK80
- Furuno Multibeam Sonar DFF3D
- Side scan sonar (StructureScan™ HD Sonar Imaging Lowrance)
- ROV - VVL-XF-CU Max. operating depth: 150 m
- Single beam echosounder (Totalscan Transducer Lowrance, Elite 7Ti)
- Mariner 1100™ High-Definition Underwater Robotic Camera System; with 300m cable
- HACH HQ40d Multiprobe sensors for pH,temperature, conductivity, TDS, Salinity, D.Oxygen with 50m cable
- AIGAIO ASV3 1.80m autonomous surface vehicle with sonar capabilities
- 4 kayaks for mapping purposes (mounted with structure scanner) and microplastic sample collection
- 1 SwellPro Splash Drone 3 & 2 DJI Drones

Other:
- Crane for deployment of gear up to 1000m - lifting capacity up to 1 tonne
- On board lab with for the water quality analysis (> 100 chemical parameters, microbiological & microplastic pollution)

Registration Number: POL21199
Flag: Polish
Port of registry: Gdynia, Poland
Main Port of Operation: Samos, Greece
Type: Ketch Sailing boat
Engine:  90 hp Toyota Length 15,25 m
Width: 3,80 m
Draft: 2,10 m
Weight: 26 t
Water capacity:  1 tones
Fuel capacity: 1 tones
Crew capacity (24hr surveys) :  8
Crew capacity daily surveys :  12

Main Equipment:

- 1 Towed Hydrophone Array System (340m cable, - 4 channels), containing:

  • one pair of Low Frequency hydrophones,
  • one pair of High frequency hydrophones,
  • pressure sensor,
  • waterproof signal processing box with a SAIL DAQ
  • measurement computing USB 1208LS DAQ
  • NUC minicomputer

- 1 Aquarian AS-1 hydrophone (20 m cable)
- 1 Laptop with Pamguard software for acoustic real-time monitoring and spectrogram inspection. marine binoculars, photo cameras with lenses and video camera
- a Marine Mammal Observation Platform on the boats’ stern; at 5m from water level with 2 seats

Archipelagos’ oldest boat, Pinelopi has been supporting our oceanographic research and marine conservation actions since 1999. After several years in the dry dock, all repair works are finally completed at Pinelopi and she again back in action in 2019. She is a traditional vessel of “schooner”type and is a copy of a famous sailing boat from 1811, with 2 masts, 16m length and 5m width. She is built with 10mm steel in order to withstand the harshest of weather conditions.

Builder: Perama, Athens 1979

Type: Traditional, steel dual-mast sailing boat

Overall Length: 16m

Engine: Ford Fumoko 140 hp

Passenger Capacity: 14 persons

Archipelagos’ research vessel, Okeanos, is a 12m Bertram motorboat. It supports several Archipelagos projects, including the mapping of seagrass meadows and coralligene reefs, as well as the assessment of fish biomass, through the use of a multibeam sonar, a biomass scanner, a structure scanner and an ROV. It is also used for monitoring IUU fisheries practices. The boat is fully equipped with all navigation, safety and communication requirements (including 1 generator Onan 6.5 kWA, radar, GPS, plotter, autopilot).

Manufacturer: Bertram

Type: Motorboat

Overall Length: 12m

Engine: 2* Iveco 335 hp

Passenger Capacity: 12 persons

The speedboat, Asterias, is used to support various surveys of Archipelagos' research teams. It can quickly access sampling sites on islands and islets, as well as transport team members participating in different conservation actions.

Type: Speedboat

Overall Length: 7.20 m

Engine: 150 hp

Archipelagos also uses a small fleet of 8 kayaks to support coastal research. Kayaks are considered to be an ideal, eco-friendly means of researching coastal habitats, while the great clarity of the Aegean waters (down to 40m down) makes it possible to survey extensive depths. The kayaks are flexible and leave zero carbon footprint, cause no environmental impact and do not produce any noise pollution.

One of the main applications of kayaks is monitoring and mapping the seagrass meadows, using a small structure scanner unit combined with an underwater camera. During parallel surveys structure scanner readings can be shared via wi-fi on tablets on other kayaks.

Kayak-based surveys are also used for sampling surface waters to study zooplankton and microplastics, monitoring seabirds and, with some luck, even marine mammals!

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