Abyssa, a French Deep Sea Exploration Company, creates its Caledonian subsidiary
Abyssa SAS, a French large seabed exploration company created in Bayonne in January 2019, announces the creation of Abyssa Nouvelle-Caledonie.
The company aims to exploit a navigation technology of underwater drones allowing to acquire oceanographic, geological, biological, renewable energy, environmental knowledge and resources of deep underwater environments.
With this disruptive innovation, Abyssa seeks to develop knowledge of the oceans in the service of the public good (Scientific, Economic and Governmental) by a decision-making aid tool. It is indeed a question of establishing in the deep seabed, the links between resources and environmental sensitivities which will make it possible to provide: elements of decisions to government authorities, such as total or partial protection, authorization to exploit resources under conditions, etc. and protection constraints for farms to manufacturers.
"The seabed of this South Pacific area is a" global hotspot", because of its biodiversity, geo-diversity and resources, it is subject to major challenges in terms of knowledge, protection, preservation but also of rational use of exceptional underwater resources”, confirms Michel Colinet, Associate Director. “However, both on the side of public authorities and industry, it is impossible to make informed decisions on the sanctuarization or the operating conditions in the absence of knowledge about these extremely sensitive environments. There is a need to implement exploration campaigns”, he continued.
The creation of this Caledonian subsidiary is also due to the “Territoire d'Innovation” competition of the Investment Program for the Future, under the project "How to preserve the Caledonian biodiversity and its Coral sea natural park”. Abyssa thus proposes to acquire "a permanent fleet of autonomous underwater drones to gain better knowledge of deep underwater environments in order to provide decision-making tools". The company plans a first exploration campaign for the end of 2021 with an autonomous vehicle capable of diving up to 6.000 metres.
“After raising 1,2€ million in equity, to which were added 500.000€ in grants from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region and 500.000€ from an Innovation seed loan from Bpifrance, Abyssa aims to reach a 5 million euros capitalization by 2021 and make it a long-lasting and solid regional player, creator of qualified jobs”, adds the company in a press release.
https://www.tech4islands.com/en/digital-festival-tahiti-2019/exposants-2019/abyssa/