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>> roy, the bluefin-21 is not the only autonomous underwater vehicle. we know there's a remis, o'ryan. do you think the bluefin was the right one to begin with? >> yes, it was the one that was immediately available. it's run by u.s. navy contractors and it's a fly away system. it was able to be on site fairly quickly. there are other assets, the lemis is an auv that can search to the south or east and west a bit. i think this should bring other assets in also. towed systems assigned assets to a certain area and broaden the search and come up with results

There now looking? >> it does the same thing as far as collecting sonar images. but it is a towed array. meaning you have to let it out on a cable. and if it's three miles deep, it's going to have to let over ten miles of cable out to get to the bottom and tow it. >> so it can get stuck on things? >> if the terrain down there is rough, it doesn't view the bottom as well. it doesn't contour to the bottom where the auv will stay with the bottom and get you much better imagery. and it does have trade-offs. everybody thinks because it's down there for 24 hours. >> sending up real-time data. >> it ...

Consecutive two years, because we stopped some of the time. as with the malaysian authorities, who is paying the bill -- >> for example -- >> if you took the down time, how much was it in real time? >> yeah, with the auv, we did 66 days consecutive, and we had to stop because it was the matter of the money. and after six months later we started again, and eight or ten days later we found the wreck. >> because you were just so close. >> it was so close, but we were short of money. but during the 66 days we were diverted for, because somebody said maybe there is a place where the submersible her...

A basket. >> reporter: for example, there is the orion rov, connected to a ship by an umbilical cord, and send signals to the bottom. this can stay down weeks at a time. the bluefin only lasts about 24 hours. then, there is the remus 6000, an auv, operating without connection at all. the team from woods hole, massachusetts, already met dramatic success locating the wreckage of air france flight 447 two years after it crashed in the south atlantic ocean. the discovery only possible because of this auv. this is the initial shot of the air france debris captured by the remus 6000. >> they can go ...

Effort could be tricki. >> to bring in more people at this point will simply complicate and extend the process. it's a very bad mistake in my estimation. >> there needs to be a spearhead so to speak. a mission control, if you like, that organizes all these asset. otherwise, we may be seeing different entities covering the same ground and, therefore, being inefficient and wasting a lot of time and money. >> reporter: ocean explorer fabian cousteau says it's about time they increase assets and include submarines. >> there's a big difference between a robot or rov and auv versus having people dow...