Pro 4 ROV Will Serve the Entire State of Alaska

The Alaska State Police recently purchased a VideoRay Pro 4 Remotely Operated Vehicle System to assist with search & recovery (SAR) operations across the entire state of Alaska. The Pro 4 Plus BASE ROV system also included a Teledyne BlueView V-130 imaging sonar and rotating manipulator arm, two essential accessories for SAR missions, especially in challenging environments like Alaska. 

The Alaska State Troopers decided to purchase the VideoRay Pro 4 ROV after the ROV’s benefits were clearly demonstrated during an underwater drowning victim recovery near Bethel earlier this year. Immediately following the success of the Bethel recovery, the Kodiak Area Native Association began securing funds from government grants and voluntary donations to purchase a VideoRay ROV for the entire state. 

“[The Pro 4] ROV allows us to put a piece of equipment under the water that gives us a sonar picture as well as a video picture to locate quickly and recover those victims a lot faster. [The ROV] can be utilized in summer and wintertime, under the ice or without ice, and in a lot of different currents,” said Captain Andrew Merrill, an Alaska State Trooper with the Village Public Safety Officer Program.

Merrill anticipates that the Pro 4 ROV will be used statewide for a wide range of underwater applications, especially drowning victim searches and recoveries. “We realized that having [the Pro 4 underwater  ROV] here would allow us to find and recover search and rescue victims a lot faster and help bring closure to families who had lost a loved one.”

As of November 2015, nine people have been trained and certified to operate the VideoRay Pro 4. According to Merrill, those individuals will be responsible for both operating the equipment and training additional state troopers on the ROV.