“The camera gives you the ability to almost be closer to being there in person. Even when you go down in a vehicle, you don’t always get a great view of what’s there because of constraints on mechanical systems,” Roberts said. “It’s a hard to access environment for humans. Video imaging is vitally important to understand such creatures, said Roberts. The invertebrate has a 3-foot-wide body and arms that span 33 feet, which presents a conundrum to researchers studying the jelly. In November, an ROV equipped with the camera captured an elusive giant phantom jelly. The MxD SeaCam’s 4K ultra HD resolution and powerful zoom capabilities mean scientists will now be able to more accurately track creatures and geologic features, such as the Monterey submarine Canyon, in the Pacific and beyond. Prior to 2021, dive images were captured in high definition. The images and videos captured by the camera will become a part of a larger database MBARI researchers have compiled over 35 years, which contains 8.5 million observations of the world’s oceans.īull moose leaves Colorado hunter with life-threatening injuries “We’re seeing the surface of jellies and other animals that we couldn’t see before – it would just be no definition, no contour – and now all of the sudden we’re seeing all these little bumps and ripples on the surface, just textures we didn’t see in the past,” Lundsten said. Using the MxD SeaCam, researchers have already documented parasitic organisms not seen in the past, Lundsten said. So far, the camera has accompanied an ROV on 19 MBARI missions, which range from day trips to week-long expeditions at sea.Īccording to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, more than 80% of the world’s oceans remain unexplored. Catching a ride on a Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV, it can dive to depths of more than 13,000 feet below the ocean’s surface and capture video continuously for 12 hours. Three years in the making, the MxD SeaCam is enclosed in a special titanium housing that protects delicate camera components from being damaged by the high pressures encountered in the deep sea. (Contributed photo – Mark Chaffey © 2021 MBARI) MBARI Electrical Engineer Paul Roberts prepares the alignment test setup during final assembly and calibration of the optical components in the MxD SeaCam 4K camera at MBARI’s facilities in Moss Landing, California. “When there’s a moment in a sports game that you absolutely have to catch because it’s only going to happen once … I think that’s analogous to some of the things that we do, where you might see an animal very briefly and you have to get a really good shot of it,” Roberts said. The camera’s technology is similar to that of which is used in the Olympics, said MBARI Electrical Engineer Paul Roberts, which track skiers whizzing down mountaintops at 90 mph and ice skaters whirling and hurling through the air. In collaboration with DeepSea Power & Light, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute scientists developed the technology, which will be used to capture images of rare jellies, neon corals and hydrothermal vents. “There are colors, textures, animals that just kind of blended into the background in the past that we will now be able to visualize,” said Lonny Lundsten, institute senior research technician. A 4K frame captures of a seafloor scene including sablefish (Anoplopomafimbria, left), corals, and sponges.(Contributed photo – © 2021 MBARI) The studio-quality camera, which captures images in ultrahigh definition 4K video, will help researchers better document the creatures and rock formations which lie beneath the ocean’s surface.

MOSS LANDING – A new state of the art underwater camera, developed by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute scientists, will paint a brighter, more detailed picture of deep sea life.

Aquarium 4k video