The boats are counting fish — haddock, to be specific — with a fancy version of the fish finder sonar you'd find on a bass fishing boat.

About 2,500 miles away, Richard Jenkins, a mechanical engineer and part-time daredevil, is tracking the robot sailboats on a large projection screen in an old hangar that used to be part of the Alameda Naval Air Station. Now the hangar is the command center of a little company called Saildrone.

At least 20 companies are chasing the possibly quixotic dream of a self-driving car in Silicon Valley. But self-sailing boats are already a real business.

While they are counting fish, Saildrone's boats are also monitoring the seals that feed on the fish by tracking transponders that scientists have attached to the heads of the seals.

"We can tell them what size fish they are eating and why they are going there," said Mr. Jenkins, who is the chief executive and a co-founder of the company.