After 96 Days at the Bottom of the Gulf, the GT1 is Like the Energizer Bunny, It Just Keeps Going and Going!

When Geoforce says our GT1 Global Asset Tracker is the world’s most rugged and reliable ATEX/IECEx Zone 0 certified GPS tracking device in the world, boy do we mean it.

In a story that amazed many down here in South Louisiana, but was not at all shocking to our quality and reliability engineers, the GT1 recently spent an unplanned 96 days submerged at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico – and yet continued to transmit after its retrieval!

Louisiana-based Wet Tech Energy is one of the country’s leading buoy manufacturers with over 600 clients around the world. Since 2011, Wet Tech has used Geoforce’s Track and Trace software solutions and GT1 tracking devices to monitor the location and status of its buoys across the Gulf of Mexico.

On November 20^th, 2016, one of Wet Tech’s buoys was hit by a large vessel and sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Needless to say, the GT1 stopped reporting as water submersion is one of the few kryptonites for satellite transmitting devices.

Doug Beard, Wet Tech’s Marine Project Manager, said, “I assumed it was time to get a replacement, as I had never seen an electronic device survive under water for that long. I thought she was a goner!”

Not wanting to assume the worst, Geoforce’s customer support team asked Doug to notify them once the buoy was re-surfaced. On February 24^th, 2017, 96 long days after it had sunk to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the very wet and now heavily barnacle-encrusted GT1 was surfaced along with its buoy. To the amazement of Doug and his colleagues at Wet Tech, the hardy little GT1 immediately began transmitting its location again!

After 96 days at a depth of approximately 47 feet, the GT1 was pinging away like the champ we at Geoforce all knew it to be. We’d love to see the Energizer Bunny try do the same. =)

Justin Walters is a South Louisiana-based Regional Account Services Representative at Geoforce who provides hands-on customer support and training related services to our customer base in Cajun Country. Geaux Geoforce!