Seatrec

08/13/2026

🌊 We have another Where's the Monk winner!

Congrats to Knut-Frode Dagestad, senior researcher at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and co-developer of OpenDrift — the very trajectory-modeling framework our first winner, José Manuel Echevarría Rubio, used to win round one! Knut-Frode's prediction landed just 61 km from where The Monk actually surfaced on July 20, 2026.

Round two came down to the same challenge: predict exactly where Seatrec's infiniTE™ float — The Monk — would surface. Predictions landing within 100 km were genuinely hard — only 3 entries managed it.

🎯 Honorable mention to Liesvy Valladares Alfonso, Physical Oceanographer and PhD Candidate at CICIMAR-IPN in La Paz, Mexico — the very same institution as José Manuel — whose prediction also landed within 100 km.

Want the full story, including how Knut-Frode validated his current model before running the forecast? Read it here: https://seatrec.com/we-have-a-winner-wheres-the-monk-contest-part-2/

🎙️ Join us Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at 9:00 AM PDT for our webinar "Finding The Monk: How to Predict Where the Ocean Takes a Float," bringing together the winners of both contests — José Manuel Echevarría Rubio (round one) and Knut-Frode Dagestad (round two) — alongside Paul Chamberlain, Postdoctoral Researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Register here: 846d048f-6edf-479d-8436-800f9ff3219c@ed5bafa0-1502-4920-8b8a-2c13e22faf2c" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/846d048f-6edf-479d-8436-800f9ff3219c@ed5bafa0-1502-4920-8b8a-2c13e22faf2c

08/07/2026

🎙️ Join Our Free Webinar: How to Predict Where the Ocean Takes a Profiling Float

Ever wondered how anyone could predict where a drifting ocean float will end up, days ahead, with no live GPS to check against? The winner of our “Where’s the Monk” contest actually pulled it off.

📅 Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at 9:00 AM PDT, we’re hosting a live walkthrough of real trajectory-modeling techniques with our contest winner and Dr. Paul Chamberlain, Postdoctoral Researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

We’ll cover Lagrangian vs. Eulerian forecasting, the Gulf Stream’s eddies and meanders, and exactly how the winning predictions came together — including how some AI-assisted guesses landed as much as 6x farther off than the winning human prediction.

🔗 Register here: 846d048f-6edf-479d-8436-800f9ff3219c@ed5bafa0-1502-4920-8b8a-2c13e22faf2c" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/846d048f-6edf-479d-8436-800f9ff3219c@ed5bafa0-1502-4920-8b8a-2c13e22faf2c

Hosted by Seatrec.

07/21/2026

Big news from our team! 🌊 Seatrec has been awarded $30.8 million by the U.S. Department of War under the APFIT program to accelerate production of our Persistent Subsea Autonomous Profiler (PSAP) — a subsea drone powered by the energy harvested from temperature gradients in the ocean.

This award enables Seatrec to begin low-rate initial production immediately at our California facility, with a planned full-rate production site in Mississippi to meet growing demand. It's a huge validation of years of hard work from our team, born out of technology originally developed at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech.

"This APFIT award is an important step in our mission of bringing the Navy persistent 24/7 undersea information, covering areas that are presently largely unmonitored," said our CEO and Founder, Dr. Yi Chao.

So proud of this team and grateful for our partners at the Office of Naval Research and the Naval Postgraduate School for their support early on.

Read the full story:

Seatrec secures $30.8M DoW APFIT award to scale its Persistent Subsea Autonomous Profiler (PSAP), delivering 24/7 undersea monitoring to U.S. forces.

07/14/2026

🌊 Where's The Monk Challenge Continues!
Somewhere in the North Atlantic, Seatrec's infiniTE™ float "The Monk" is drifting — guided by currents, thermoclines, and ocean physics. Your job: predict exactly where it surfaces on July 20, 2026 at 11:59 PM PDT.

🔍 Track it live: https://seatrec-floats.com/floatprediction
📋 Submit your prediction: https://forms.gle/hKTG3zBNwRiPNzFL8
🏆 Prize: Exclusive Seatrec "Infinite Energy · Deeper Insights" T-shirt
⏰ Deadline: July 20, 2026 · 11:59 PM PDT
🎯 Closest guess wins. Ties broken by earliest valid entry.

No hints — just your read of the ocean, your models, or your best guess. 🌐

Round 1 already had a winner — congrats again to José Manuel Echevarría Rubio (CICIMAR)! Read how he nailed it: https://seatrec.com/seatrec-com-wheres-the-monk-winner/

No purchase necessary. Open worldwide, ages 13+ (parental consent under 18). Void where prohibited.

07/13/2026

🌊 We have a winner!

Our first Where's the Monk contest asked one question: where in the Atlantic would Seatrec's infiniTE™ float — The Monk — surface on July 5, 2026, at 11:59 PM PDT?

The Monk surfaced at 38.5626°N, 50.6690°W after riding the Gulf Stream's eddies and meanders. Predictions landing within 100 km were genuinely hard — only 4 entries managed it!

🏆 Congratulations to José Manuel Echevarría Rubio, PhD Candidate in Marine Sciences at Centro Interdisciplinario De Ciencias Marinas-Ipn, whose prediction landed just 52 km away — closest of all!

🥈 Honorable mention to Ruoying (Roy) He and the Fathom Science team at North Carolina State University, whose prediction also landed within 100 km — along with two other entrants.

The top four entries spanned Mexico, France, and both coasts of the U.S. — talk about global ocean nerds. 🌍

Want the full story, including how José Manuel actually modeled the float's trajectory? Read it here: https://seatrec.com/seatrec-com-wheres-the-monk-winner/

🎙️ To learn more, join us Tuesday, August 18, at 9:00 AM PDT for our webinar "Finding The Monk: How to Predict Where the Ocean Takes a Float" with José Manuel and Dr. Paul Chamberlain (Scripps Institution of Oceanography).
Register here: https://lnkd.in/guVA7Dsj

And guess what — the next Where's the Monk contest is already live! Think you can outguess the Atlantic? https://forms.gle/hKTG3zBNwRiPNzFL8

07/01/2026

🌊 5 DAYS LEFT to guess Where’s The Monk?

Seatrec’s infiniTE™ float is still drifting through the North Atlantic — powered by the ocean itself.

Where will it be on July 5, 2026 at 11:59 PM PDT?

Submit your best latitude/longitude guess for a chance to win an exclusive Seatrec “Infinite Energy Deeper Insights” T-shirt 👕

📍 Position at start of contest: 39.1239°N, 55.4052°W
🔍 Track it live: seatrec-floats.com/floatprediction
📋 Drop your coordinates here: forms.gle/siQ9aGfr4QcANoiDA
⏰ Deadline: July 5, 2026 at 11:59 PM PDT
🎯 Closest guess wins — ties broken by earliest entry

No hints. Just your best read of the ocean or boldest guess.

Run by Seatrec. Not sponsored by Facebook. No purchase necessary. Open to residents worldwide, ages 13+. Entrants under 18 require parental permission. Void where prohibited. Winner contacted by email.

06/24/2026

🌊 Big news from Seatrec!

We have been selected as a DEVELOP Phase winner in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Powering the Blue Economy™: Power at Sea Prize, earning a $75,000 award to advance our thermal-powered profiling float technology.

In partnership with ASL Environmental Sciences Inc., we’re integrating the AZFP-pico acoustic sensor onto Seatrec’s infiniTE™ float to measure vertical profiles of zooplankton and mesopelagic biomass through the water column.

Why does this matter?

Zooplankton are tiny, but their impact is enormous. Their daily vertical movements help drive the biological carbon pump, one of the ocean’s most important climate processes. Yet observing that movement over long periods, at high frequency, and across depth has been a major challenge.

By harvesting energy from ocean temperature gradients, Seatrec’s floats can support persistent ocean observations without the same endurance limits as battery-only platforms.

This award helps move us closer to filling a major ocean data gap and expanding what autonomous ocean observing can do.

Read more: https://seatrec.com/seatrec-wins-75000-from-doe-to-advance-thermal-powered-profiling-float-to-measure-zooplankton/

Seatrec wins $75,000 from the DOE's Power at Sea Prize to integrate acoustic zooplankton sensing onto its thermal-powered infiniTE™ profiling float, advancing long-endurance ocean observation.

06/22/2026

🌊Where's The Monk?

Seatrec’s infiniTE™ float is drifting through the North Atlantic, powered by the ocean itself.

Where will it be on July 5, 2026 at 11:59 PM PDT?

Submit your best latitude/longitude guess. The closest prediction wins an exclusive Seatrec “Infinite Energy Deeper Insights” T-shirt 👕 (limited run).

📍 Last confirmed position (as of this posting): 39.1239°N, 55.4052°W
🔍 Track it live: seatrec-floats.com/floatprediction
📋 Submit your prediction: forms.gle/siQ9aGfr4QcANoiDA
⏰ Deadline: July 5, 2026 at 11:59 PM PDT
🛰️ Float positions will keep updating until June 28, 2026 — after that, you’re predicting with just your read of the ocean.
🌐 Drop your coordinates and outguess the Atlantic.
🎯 Closest guess wins. Ties broken by earliest valid entry.

Webinars on real float-modeling techniques launching soon.

Run by Seatrec. Not sponsored or endorsed by Facebook. No purchase necessary. Open worldwide to ages 13+. Under 18 requires parental permission. Void where prohibited. Winner contacted by email.

06/08/2026

🌊 The ocean is the most data-rich, least-understood place on Earth. Happy to the scientists and researchers working to change that. .

05/28/2026

🎙️ Our CEO, Yi Chao, sat down with Shulynn Ragland at The Bluture Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about what Seatrec and our InfiniTE™ float are making possible in the ocean.

Seatrec designs and manufactures subsea drones that generate electricity from ocean temperature gradients, opening up entirely new possibilities for ocean science, from mapping the seafloor to protecting whale populations.

If you're curious about where ocean technology is headed, this is a great listen.

👇 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/HbHag8HutZM

How can subsea drone technology transform our understanding of the ...