Linda Tatreau, FEBRUARY 13, 2010

The camera team got spectacular results with the BotCam and the BRUVs. I got to watch just a bit of the footage this morning. Everyone is talking about the great shot from the BotCam showing the stern of the ship and the propeller as the camera descends, then fading and picking up the sea floor. (You can see this video clip here.) The BotCam filmed lots of fish and a spotted eagle ray too.

The BRUV footage is beautifully clear. I watched only a short section and saw a white tip reef shark, grey reef shark, barracuda, red snapper (Lutjanus bojar), grouper and dogtooth tuna. Also seen were unicornfishes, groupers, Tanguisson wrasses and lots of tangs and butterflyfishes. The depth of the cameras was about 200feet.

Earlier today, the AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) was deployed. It travels the sea floor following a pre-programmed path for about 4 hours . It keeps itself about 8feet off the bottom. Unfortunately, it was not communicating with the ship, so it had to be retrieved for repairs. In 5 minutes they will deploy the TOAD. I’ll be back. Well, that was great fun and it worked perfectly. The TOAD (Towed Optical Assessment Device) lets us watch the video as the camera is towed above the sea floor. The ship was just drifting at a good speed for the camera. One of the scientists works the controls to keep the TOAD just a few feet off the bottom. This gives great video of the bottom cover, but the fish seem to shy from it. We did see some triggerfishes, jobfishes and a beautiful ray. We spent two hours watching the sea floor starting in an area about 90 feet deep with a lot of coral. We passed through a large sand flat and then dropped off the edge. It got deep so fast that the camera could not be lowered fast enough to keep sight of the bottom. The crew is bringing the TOAD back aboard and soon we will be working with the multibeam sonar to complete the map of Galvez Bank.