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Project Decription

The MARS Eye-In-The-Sea (MEITS) project is funded by The National Science Foundation, and is a joint venture between the Ocean Research and Conservation Association (ORCA), Harbor Branch (HBOI), and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).  Project management and science are headed by Dr. Edith Widder at ORCA, while engineering and instrumentation development is conducted at HBOI, led by Lee Frey. A third group at MBARI, led by Duane Edgington, is working on image processing and data analysis software.

The Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS), is a cabled seafloor network which will allow instruments, such as MEITS to be connected continuously to shore from 3000ft. deep in Monterey Canyon. Using this system, and the newly developed MEITS instrument, scientists will be able to perform experiments and observations in real-time, and have an extended presence on the bottom.  As opposed to the 4-8 hour dives that a submersible or ROV is capable of, MEITS will be on-site for 6 months to a year between recoveries. 

The concept for the new MEITS system was based on another instrument built at HBOI, called the Eye-In-The-Sea.  It was designed to be used as an exploratory platform for observing life in the deep sea in an unobtrusive manner.  Currently, most of the tools that we use in the deep sea use large, bright lights, loud thrusters and other tools that disturb and scare away deep-sea animals.  The problem is that we don’t even know what we may be scaring away!  MEITS uses quiet technology, a special ultra-sensitive camera, and unobtrusive far-red lighting that deep-sea animals can’t see.  With the previous instrument, which was only able to stay on the bottom for a few days at a time since it ran on batteries, we filmed animals and behavior that had never been seen before.  So, needless to say, the promise of being on-site for 6 months and getting data in real-time is exciting!

In addition, the new system contains a suite of peripherals, such as a bioluminescence sensor, CTD, current meter, scaling lasers, and an “electronic jellyfish” which emulates bioluminescent lightshows.   These sensors, along with video and audio recordings, will give us much more data than before, and help scientists to better answer questions about the behavior of these mysterious creatures.

Connection to shore via the MARS network will also allow some other interesting possibilities.  Eventually, we can connect MEITS to the Internet, offering teachers and other scientists the ability to interact and conduct experiments in the deep sea from, say, the middle of Kansas.  Imagine, exposing a kid in a land-locked area to the ocean from the Internet, or having a teacher connect in near real-time to an experiment being conducted in the deep sea.  In addition to the scientific uses, the educational and outreach potential for such technology is enormous.

Development and construction of MEITS is complete, and its first in-water tests in the HBOI large test tank were successful.  It’s scheduled for testing in MBARI’s tank in October, and ocean deployment at the end of the year.  With any luck, we should be collecting more video and data than we can handle by early 2009!