DeepEye: A Dedicated Camera for Deep-Sea Tripod Observation Systems

The deep-sea tripod systems are designed and built at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC) in Santa Cruz, California. They are recovered in late September 2014 after spending about half a year collecting data on the floor of the South China Sea. The deep-sea tripod systems are named as Free-Ascending Tripod (FAT), are deployed at 2,100 m water depth—roughly 10 times as deep as most tripods dedicated to measuring currents and sediment movement at the seafloor. Deployment at this unusual depth was made possible by the tripod’s ability to rise by itself to the surface rather than being pulled up by a line. Instruments mounted on the tripod took bottom photographs and measured such variables as water temperature, current velocity, and suspended-sediment concentration. FAT is used to better understand how and where deep-seafloor sediment moves and accumulates. Besides of this, we also use them to study the deep-sea biology. The obtained the images from the camera, the biology animals are hardly to be distinguished. In this project, we are concerned to use novel underwater imaging technologies for recovering the deep-sea scene.