Originally Posted by
bimmerdriver
It's not a matter of whether the Bluefin is the best AUV or not, or whether the mapping is "consistent", it's a matter of how much area one AUV can search. The more AUVs they have, the more area can be covered.
I'm no expert, and if the search is visual or covers a very large territory then it seems to me a lot of them would definitely help. I think the search right now is doing a mapping with sonar and maybe the kind of sonar they are using is very strong and would interfere with others using the same kind of mapping technology in the same area.
What I find weird is they are still sending a fleet of planes every day to do an aerial search for debris in an area 1000 km SW of the Ocean Shield. The weather there is bad and even if they drop a marker buoy the chance of a chase ship finding the debris is very small, and then all they have is possibly a seat cushion or the odd piece of luggage, assuming they can see something that small from the air.