Send the robot first.
Send the diver when you choose to.
SepcoTech represents SEAMOR Marine — a Canadian builder of rugged, observation-class ROVs already trusted by police underwater-recovery teams, port authorities and defence researchers. For navies, coast guards, harbour-protection units and EOD/dive teams, that means a field-proven, diver-safe pair of eyes that searches hulls, seabeds and harbours before anyone enters the water.
A suspect hull. A weapon in the harbour. A recovery you cannot risk a diver on.
The first question below the surface is always the same — what is actually down there? — and the slowest, most dangerous way to answer it is to put a diver in the water blind. SEAMOR's observation-class ROVs are inspection tools built tough enough for real subsea work and simple enough to deploy from a quay, a RHIB or a shoreline. A single operator clears the hull, the seabed or the harbour first; the dive or EOD team enters only once the picture is clear — or doesn't enter at all. The vehicles that survey pipelines and dam intakes by day are the same ones already recovering bodies and evidence for police teams and scanning hulls for port-security units.
One control philosophy. Three platforms. Scaled to the task.
From the deep, all-mission ORCA to the heavy-payload Mako and the recovery-proven Chinook — all sharing the same topside, the same accessory ecosystem and the same in-house Sturgeon thrusters, so a unit trains once and scales as the mission demands.
ORCA
The newest and most capable vehicle in the fleet. Vectored thrust and six degrees of freedom give the ORCA the station-keeping and precision a security or survey team needs to hold position on a hull or a contact in current — depth-rated to 1,000 m and still light enough to run from a small vessel. It bridges portability and offshore-grade performance in a single system.
- 1,000 m depth
- 8 vectored thrusters
- 6 DOF
- ~60 kg vehicle
- up to 20 kg payload
Mako
Eight thrusters, six degrees of freedom and 14–22.5 kg of usable payload make the Mako the platform for advanced sonar, inertial navigation and manipulator tooling on the most demanding survey and intervention tasks. When the mission needs a multibeam head, a survey-grade INS and a working arm on the same open frame, this is the vehicle that carries them.
- 300 / 600 m depth
- 8 thrusters
- 6 DOF
- ~72 kg vehicle
- 14–22.5 kg payload
Chinook
The versatile, configurable workhorse — a 2-to-6 thruster layout and dual depth options let a team tune the vehicle to the job. It is the ROV Canada's police underwater-recovery teams deploy, and the vehicle that made the RCMP's deepest-ever recovery, 160 m under the ice above the Arctic Circle. Portable enough to carry in, tough enough to work when it gets there.
- 300 / 600 m depth
- 2–6 configurable thrusters
- 4–6 DOF
- ~33 kg vehicle
| Specification | ORCA | Mako | Chinook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Depth | 300 / 600 / 1,000 m | 300 / 600 m | 300 / 600 m |
| Weight | ~60 kg | ~72 kg | ~33 kg |
| Thrusters | 8 (vectored) | 8 | 2–6 configurable |
| Degrees of Freedom | 6 | 6 | 4–6 |
| Payload | Up to 20 kg | 14–22.5 kg | Modular |
| Primary Security Role | Deep / all-mission utility | Sonar & heavy tooling | Search & recovery |
All three platforms share the same topside control, accessory ecosystem and in-house Sturgeon thruster series (Swiss Maxon motors · BAL Seal sealing · 6061 aluminium).
The jobs no one should send a diver to do first
SEAMOR markets these ROVs for port security and search & recovery, and supplies them to law-enforcement recovery teams and defence researchers today — the same capability a navy, coast guard or harbour-protection unit needs below the surface.
Hull & Harbour Security
Ship-hull scans, sea-chest and dock-piling inspection and searches for suspicious objects against quays and vessels — work SEAMOR notes port and harbour authorities prefer to run with an ROV "rather than putting a diver at risk."
Search, Recovery & Forensics
Locating and recovering bodies, weapons, evidence and lost equipment, and documenting an underwater scene on video — the role SEAMOR ROVs already fill for police underwater-recovery teams across Canada and North America.
Pre-Dive Situational Awareness
Fly the target first. Zoom camera, lighting and optional imaging sonar build the picture from the surface, so the dive or EOD team enters the water already knowing the layout, the hazard and the task — not discovering it at depth.
Critical Underwater Infrastructure
Inspection of harbour walls, intakes, jetties, cables and submerged structures — confirming contacts and assessing damage on assets where a single act of sabotage or a failed component can take a facility offline.
Diver & EOD Support
As a low-risk first-look tool, the ROV re-acquires and images a contact, and a manipulator gripper can attach a line or recover a small object — keeping clearance divers out of the water for the riskiest part of the identification step.
How a SEAMOR task runs
A four-step cycle a small team can run from a quay, a RHIB or a shoreline — no crane and no dedicated dive vessel for the lighter platforms.
Deploy
Lift the ROV from its case, connect the umbilical to the topside control and lower it in. Portable platforms launch by hand from a quay or small boat; standard umbilicals reach out to 950 m.
Fly
Fly to the target on stable, intuitive control while a high-resolution zoom camera and dimmable LED lighting stream live to the surface — recorded for the operator, the supervisor and the case file.
Assess
Imaging sonar finds the contact in poor visibility; camera and lights classify it; a laser scaler measures it. Everything is logged with video and depth as evidence or a survey baseline.
Decide
Hand the team a clear picture: send a diver to the exact spot, task an EOD response, recover a small item with the gripper, or close the contact out — without anyone having entered the water blind.
See in the dark, measure it, prove what you found
A high-resolution colour zoom camera with 3× optical zoom and dimmable dual-LED lighting handles the visual classification; an imaging sonar finds and tracks contacts when the water is too turbid to see anything at all. A laser scaler sizes the target, and a manipulator gripper recovers small objects or attaches a recovery line.
The open frame mounts auxiliary cameras, lights, sonar and navigation payloads with tool-free brackets, and the heavier platforms carry inertial-navigation and USBL positioning for survey-grade work. Every dive records synchronised video and depth — the kind of record a court, an incident board or a security cell can actually use.
Ask about payload fit →
Engineered to keep working — and to be fixed where it works
SEAMOR ROVs are open-frame, modular systems built for serviceability. Snap-on accessories, tool-free mounting and replaceable components mean a damaged or upgraded part is swapped in the field, not shipped back — which keeps a security or recovery asset on task and lowers its through-life cost.
The in-house Sturgeon thruster series — Swiss Maxon motors, BAL Seal sealing technology and corrosion-resistant 6061 aluminium — is designed and built by SEAMOR for long-term reliability in salt water, and the same control philosophy and accessory ecosystem runs across all three platforms.
Discuss a deployment →Eyes on the target in minutes — by the team already on scene.
No mobilisation of a dive operation, no support ship for the lighter platforms. A rugged, portable ROV the responders carry themselves means the underwater picture arrives while it still matters — and the divers go in informed, or not at all.
Proven where it counts — under ice, in harbours, on real recoveries
Real, documented deployments that show the same platforms a security or naval team would field, doing diver-safe work in the most unforgiving conditions today.
160 m under the Arctic ice — Canada's deepest police recovery
In January 2022, at Bathurst Inlet in western Nunavut — roughly 400 km from the nearest community — the RCMP's National Underwater Recovery Training Centre used a SEAMOR Chinook to recover a worker lost when his bulldozer broke through an ice road. The recovery was made at 160 metres beneath the ice: the RCMP's deepest successful recovery on record and its first operational dive above the Arctic Circle.
The vehicle worked over two days — first extracting a previously trapped ROV and clearing hazards, then locating the bulldozer and opening its door with a dual-arm manipulation technique — equipped with a 5-function manipulator, an SM dual-function gripper, a rope-cutting jaw, USBL positioning and multibeam sonar.
"Success!! 'Fab' accomplished all tasks required and worked like a champ above the Arctic Circle."
— Sgt. Jay White, NURTC Coordinator
A national recovery fleet
The RCMP's National Underwater Recovery Training Centre in Nanaimo trains the officers who crew the force's six Underwater Recovery Teams — across British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland — all fielding the Chinook ROV.
Reported by SEAMOR Marine
A recovery gripper, proven on real missions
A custom search-and-recovery gripper developed for the Chinook has been used in eight successful recovery missions since 2023, and the design has since been replicated and deployed to multiple recovery teams — a concrete example of an open platform adapted to the exact task in front of the operator.
Reported by SEAMOR Marine
Defence research & port security
SEAMOR ROVs have supported underwater work for Defence Research and Development Canada, and serve port and harbour authorities — including the Nanaimo Port Authority — for hull scans and marine security. Governments choose the ROV over the diver for exactly the tasks a defence force faces.
Reported by SEAMOR MarineCase studies summarised from material published by SEAMOR Marine and its documented deployments. SepcoTech is an Authorised Distributor and is not the author of these operations. SEAMOR builds inspection / observation-class ROVs; the defence and security roles described here reflect those capabilities applied to security, policing and survey work, not a claim of naval weapons procurement or mine countermeasures.
The Chinook with the RCMP's recovery teams
SEAMOR's own footage of the Chinook ROV in service with Canada's National Underwater Recovery Training Centre.
Video: "RCMP NURTC and the CHINOOK ROV" — courtesy of SEAMOR Marine Ltd.
A dual-use platform for the services that work below the surface
SEAMOR ROVs are observation-class systems chosen for fast, low-risk underwater work — already in service with police recovery teams, port authorities and defence researchers, and a natural fit for the wider defence and security mission.
"Port security is serious business these days, and SEAMOR ROVs are playing an increasingly vital role — port and harbour authorities prefer to use an ROV for ship-hull scans and other marine security work rather than putting a diver at risk."
— SEAMOR Marine, on port-security applications
A safe pair of hands for defence at sea
Authorised Distributor
We represent SEAMOR Marine directly — specification, supply and through-life support, coordinated from Denmark.
Naval & Security Focus
A portfolio assembled for navies, coast guards, police and EOD units — dual-use platforms backed by real commercial production.
One Point of Contact
Multi-supplier defence systems, integrated and quoted as a single package by one partner.
Backed Through Life
Training, spares and field-serviceable support for the full operational life of the system.
Looking for the civil and commercial line-up? See the full SEAMOR ROV range →
Speak directly with our defence specialist
Every enquiry is handled directly and in confidence — you will normally have a reply within one business day.
For spec sheets, capability documents, pricing or to arrange a briefing or demonstration — on the SEAMOR ROV range or any platform in the SepcoTech defence portfolio — contact me directly:
- Spec sheets & technical datasheets on request
- Briefings & demonstrations for units & agencies
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