Developing Deep-Sea Camera Systems
A blog by James Bell, a Frontier Tech Hub Implementing Partner.
Pilot: Democratising Deep-Sea Discovery for Developing Nations
The deep-sea represents around 60% of the total surface of the Earth and its habitats are among the least understood, in part because exploration of the deep-sea is a considerable and expensive technological challenge. Globally, very few nations can study deep-sea environments, and this seriously limits the capacity of scientists and managers, most especially in developing nations, to make evidence-based decisions for responsible stewardship of the oceans. In this Frontier Tech Hub (FT Hub) project, we have set ourselves the challenge of building a low-cost, low-tech system that can be used on small local boats to study deep-sea habitats, building on a design by the University of the Azores (the Azor DriftCam). Having such a system frees up local teams to answer their own questions and, critically, in a responsive way that means they aren’t limited by the provision of large research ships from elsewhere.
With the support of the FT Hub, we’ve just built and trialled the first such system ahead of sending it out to our colleagues in the marine departments of the Governments of St Helena and Belize. Both St Helena and Belize are interested because this system gives them the opportunity to address questions that they have on their own deep-sea environments and associated human pressures such as fishing or pollution.
Adapted from the Azor DriftCam, the deep sea rig uses cameras, lasers, and lights to record the seabed floor
The System
Creating a camera system that can work at 1000m but is still usable off small boats is not straightforward. To begin with, it needs to be light enough to be moved around on deck without a crane, but still heavy enough to reach the bottom. Traditional deep-sea camera technology is designed to work off large ships that can power the whole system from the surface but here we need to make it work completely off batteries; lights, cameras, lasers, and everything else. To be able to study deep-sea habitats, we also need to be able to ‘fly’ the camera while it is in the water, hundreds of metres below the surface. This means we need a live-feed to the surface that is good enough quality that we can see that the camera is hanging at the right depth above the seafloor even after travelling through a kilometre of cable using a small, battery-powered video transmitter.
The camera system uses, wherever possible, components that are readily available from commercial suppliers so that it is as easy and cheap as possible to maintain. It’s also designed with user-friendliness at its core. Whereas most deep-sea cameras require specialised engineering support, this camera is designed to be used and maintained, using basic tools, by people without such training. This camera assumes nothing about what the boat can provide and we’ve designed the system with this in mind, even to the point of being able to run it completely by hand if needed.
James Bell and Maura Smyth installing freshly-charged cameras to use in another test
The Trial
Rather bizarrely, this project had us travelling up to Scotland in June this year. To give the system a fair trial before rolling it out to remote locations, we wanted to find out a practical sense what it would be like to use in waters at least 200m deep but this poses a problem in the UK where the very large majority of our seas are shallow – most of the North Sea for instance is typically 30 – 100 metres deep – but fortunately, there’s a couple of lochs in Scotland that are much deeper. Loch Morar is the deepest (at around 300 metres!) but for this trial, we chose Loch Ness because of the availability of suitable boats, and it still gave us the opportunity to get the camera deeper than 200m. At its deepest, Loch Ness is around 225 – 230 metres deep and so was a great proving ground that meant we didn’t have to (expensively!) charter a ship to head 80 – 100 miles offshore. Of course, we heard more than a few “hope you find the Loch Ness Monster” jokes in the run up to the trip – all part of the fun!
So we hired a local skipper, Ali, and his boat ‘Deepscan’ (ideal name!) for a couple of days and with the help of a local expert, Dr Adrian Shine, set about learning how best to use the camera. Having only previously worked with much heavier equipment, being able to comfortably and effectively ‘fly’ the camera hundreds of metres below the boat, by hand, was a big concern for us. However, we were really pleased to see just how easy it is to make even tiny adjustments to the height of the camera above the seafloor (well, the loch floor in this case). It was also really helpful to get a better sense of what someone using the camera should expect from a skipper, and for us to explain better to skippers and their crew what we need (e.g., in terms of how we need them to pilot their boat during a deployment).
Maura Smyth and Matthew Brown assessing the live-feed of the camera system
Next steps
The trial in Loch Ness was a great success, and it’s given us loads of ideas of how to make the system easier to set up and deploy, and how to ensure that the data it sends back is good quality. One of the vulnerabilities of putting any sort of electronics in the water, especially deep-water where the ambient pressure is many times what it is at sea level, is flooding (but actually also condensation of moisture in the housings that forms in the colder deep waters). Something we’re now working on, for the next version is a way to minimise the number of times the housings for the lights, cameras, and batteries need to be opened so that once sealed, they stay watertight but we can still download the files, charge the batteries, and control when they turn on and off.
We’re also in close conversations with staff in the Governments of Belize and St Helena, who will be the recipients of the two systems that FT Hub have funded, to get a plan in place for the initial trials and ensure that the system can be used to answer the questions they have about their own seas. It’s currently the UN Decade of Ocean Science, and the goal of this landmark international programme is for Governments and communities to be equipped with “the data we need, for the ocean we want”.
Next stop, St Helena.
Contact James Bell (james.bell@cefas.gov.uk) if you think this new deep-sea camera system could benefit your work.
If you’d like to dig in further…
👀 Head to our pilot profile page to follow our pilot journey
📚 Read more beyond the inspiration for this system, from the Azor Drift Cam
⛴️ Find out more about CEFAS