Not the cute tropical cartoon fish Nemo, the unmanned ocean vessel, Blue Nemo.

The first of its kind, the ocean drone is self sustained and self propelled using solar power.

It will be used to carry out ocean mapping and surveillance operations without the need to put people in large seas or dangerous stretches of water.

The prototype vessel was tested in Ulladulla Harbour on Thursday, and was christened by Elizabeth Kendall McSpadden with a bottle of bubbly.

Elizabeth also christened the original Solar Sailor vessel, the Marjorie K, in the harbour when she was 10 years old. She is now in her late twenties.

Dr Robert Dane is the founder and CEO of Ocius, formerly Solar Sailor, the company that created the vessel.

He was a well known doctor in the Ulladulla area where he practiced for 20 years and raised his family.

Although he is now based in Sydney, Dr Dane uses the services of Ulladulla locals in his business.

After spectating at a 1996 solar boat race in Canberra Dr Dane decided to build a boat to enter in the race the following year.

Since then he has been developing solar boats and unmanned vessels with his team of engineers, computer scientists, electricians and fibreglassers.

“The trick is to employ a lot of people who know what they are doing,” Dr Dane said.

Ocius has been developing solar powered ocean technology for the past 18 years and, for the past seven years, has been working on Blue Nemo.

“Combining electronics and salt water can be difficult,” said Ocius software and electronics engineer Ben Brown.

Ocius recently secured the 2015 Capability Technology Demonstrator Program Contract, which will allow the company to develop an Anti-Submarine Warfare Unmanned Surface Vessel.

The $3 million contract will allow the team to develop an unmanned vessel to track modern submarines and torpedoes using sonar technology. 

The vessel will be low cost and long range, saving money and valuable personnel resources. 

“Having an unmanned vessel will mean less human error and that no one needs to be in danger, “ said Dr Robert Dane.

The team will head to Bass Strait in the next couple of weeks, to continue working on the prototype and carry out some mapping.