Democratising Deep-Sea Discovery for Developing Nations: Sprint 2
A blog by James Bell, a Frontier Tech Hub Implementing Partner with CEFAS
Pilot: Democratising Deep-Sea Discovery for Developing Nations
Pause for safety
One of the key learnings of this sprint has been around ensuring that we and our partners in country can work safely at sea, both in the context of the locally available vessels but also with respect to the specifics of deploying a deep-water camera system from a small boat.
Although the system design incorporates a degree of safety-by-design, e.g. by being low weight to reduce manual handling risk, safety-at-sea extends beyond the specific equipment. During this sprint, we have been working hard to make provisions to adapt vessels locally available in both St Helena and Belize safe for this work. This has proved more complex than originally anticipated and, coupled with logistic delays to some parts that have been added or iteratively developed since the Loch Ness trial in June, have meant that we’ve had to delay the second field trial of the system. We’re now working towards the goal of trialling the system in Belize in the spring.
Developing the concept
Since the Loch Ness trial, we’ve added a number of improvements and additions to the design of the system, including:
a bespoke umbilical reel with an electric winch for power, a mechanism for spooling the cable on and off the drum, and integrated video cabling that allows us to maintain the video signal whilst the drum is spinning;
parallel lasers that enable analysts to measure the size of the images and calculate seafloor area sampled, and the size of individual fauna; and
adapting the design of the camera housings so that they don’t need to be opened as much, thereby reducing the chance of cameras being flooded during deployments, and simplifying the use of the system whilst offshore.
The camera houses have had ports fitted to allow for unhampered communication and power
Demonstrating demand
During this sprint, we’ve been involved in a number of discussions, both with potential funding streams for increasing the production of the D4N systems, but also target end-users. We’ve now confirmed funding for a third system, working with Blue Resources Trust in Sri Lanka and building towards collaborations with the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Vietnam, and the Seychelles.
D4N remains a demand-driven project, and to meet the needs of partners in Sri Lanka, we will be developing the system to work as additionally as a ‘baited lander’ style camera. In this mode, the camera will free-descend on a weight and record imagery of seafloor ecosystems from a fixed point over a longer period, rather than drifting along above the seabed. This will enable us to study deep-water predators, including sharks and rays, that are threatened by fisheries in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.