US Coast Guard Cutter Alexander Hamilton was found by the Icelandic Coast Guard with the aid of a Gavia AUV, 67 years after being torpedoed by a German U boat in January 1942, while escorting a convoy to Iceland.  Within sight of land, the final resting place of the Treasury Class US Coast Guard Cutter Alexander Hamilton WPG-34, was finally identified during an Icelandic Coast Guard operation utilizing a Gavia AUV early September 2009. This was the first US loss in the Atlantic after the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7th, 1941. Read full article.

For several weeks in June of 2009, NCS Survey of Aberdeen, UK, successfully utilized a Gavia AUV for commercial survey operations in the Caspian Sea for both pipeline inspection and hydrographic surveys. During the operation approximately 90 kilometers of pipeline was inspected using a Marine Sonics side scan sonar (SSS) and a Geoacoustic Geoswath Multi-beam Echosounder  (MBES) and around 100 line kilometers survey performed in a local harbor. This operation was the first commercial deployment within a Gavia of the AutoTracker, an autonomous pipeline inspection tool for AUVs from SeeByte, which NCS Survey operates.

N-3PB patrol bombers in Reykjavík were operated against German U-boats by the Norwegian 330 Squadron of the RAF during the Second World War. This particular aircraft is believed to have crashed during a storm during the war and lies at roughly 20m depth on its back in the vicinity of Reykjavik airport. This aircraft has been surveyed by Gavia AUVs with side scan, GeoSwath and camera.
Commissioned by the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 1940 for coastal defence, the N-3PB was the first aircraft designed and produced by the newly founded Northrop Aircraft, Inc. The position of this second known surviving N-3PB aircraft was supplied by the Icelandic Coast Guard and it is located in a protected area as the airplane is believed to contain unexploded ordinance onboard according to this article.

Typical Commercial Applications Include: Bathymetric surveys, environmental surveys, exploration and various construction support and inspection tasks for pipelines and platforms, utilizing side scan, camera and swath bathymetry or specialized payloads for environmental surveys, exploration, post hurricane inspection and pre/post lay and build surveys for pipelines and platforms.
All data is left in manufacturers original format and readily exportable to a number of post processing packages.

Typical Scientific Applications Include: Oceanography, limnology, habitat assessment, hydrography, bathymetric surveys, archeology, wreck finding and mapping, bottom type classification, water column, 3D CTD mapping, current profiling and under ice surveying.
All data is left in manufacturers original format and readily exportable to a number of post processing packages.

Typical Defence Applications Include: Mine Counter Measures (MCM), anti submarine warfare (ASW) training, rapid environmental assessment (REA), surveillance, search and recovery, port security, specialized payloads and research.
All data is left in manufacturers original format and readily exportable to a number of post processing packages.

Diver with UBC Gavia
Beneath the surface of Pavilion Lake are fascinating carbonate rock structures with diverse sizes and morphology. The structures, called microbialites, are similar to stromatolites, and are rare on today's earth. These structures are believed to be formed, in whole or in part, by microorganisms. The microorganisms that live on the structures are single celled bacteria and algae, and are common inhabitants of aquatic environments. These types microbialites were very common for about two billion years of earth's early history. The microbialites in Pavilion Lake provide an analog for the biogeochemical processes active on early Earth and potentially on other planets such as Mars. The Pavilion Lake Research Project was founded to characterize the morphogenesis (formation) and preservation potential of the microbialites in Pavilion Lake.
More about the project and the mission objectives at: http://www.pavilionlake.com/
All photograps courtesy of Donnie Reid, taken in February 2008.