Surveys – Page 3 – Learn to Dive Today Blog

Google maps dives underwater

A feature on BoingBoing late in the third quarter of 2012 drew my attention to the fact that Google Street View, a feature of Google Maps which we used extensively when house hunting (sparing many interactions with estate agents, for which one can mostly be very grateful), has released underwater “street views” of six coral reef locations around the world. Google originally announced the news on its official blog.

Allowing people to look under the ocean at what’s there (and I mean what actually lives there, not an attention seeker in a bikini holding onto a shark’s fin) is one of the most powerful methods available for spurring an interest in marine conservation. It is easy not to care about something one has never seen. Tony has had some startlingly intense reactions to the photographs he applied to the side of the divemobile, sometimes attracting a small crowd of onlookers who exclaim “I didn’t know it looked like that underwater!”

The BoingBoing article explains some of the technicalities of the Google project, including the specially adapted video cameras used. It also features an interview with a project director of Catlin Seaview Survey, the company that partnered with Google to produce the content. You can read it here.

Find the underwater Google “street views” here. They are wonderfully soothing and a boon to the office-bound. I hope we get some cold water “street views” next…

Citizen science with Seafloor Explorer

I am a beeeeg fan of citizen science. This is what happens when non-professional scientists, such as you and I, gather scientific data or do experiments that can lead to real scientific results. This is immensely satisfying, specially for someone like me who is probably in the wrong (non-scientific) career, but (for various reasons) isn’t going to change it any time soon.

When I was at university, my friends and I participated in the SETI@home project, donating our computers’ spare processing cycles to analysing radio telescope data in search of aliens (and other interesting data). In this way the researchers were able to analyse far more data than if they’d just used the computing power at their personal disposal. These days, Tony and I participate in western leopard toad research by submitting photos of our resident toad (Franklin) to iSpot.

With modern sampling methods, silly amounts of data can be generated – more than a single scientist or team could process in several lifetimes. Enlisting the help of the man on the street to filter the data down to what is interesting saves time, and enables studies of impressive magnitude to be undertaken.

The Seafloor Explorer project allows the general public to analyse images taken by HabCam, a camera that flies above the ocean floor (towed by a ship) taking six images per second. The camera is completely non-invasive, and the latest version actually comprises two cameras in stereo, which allows size measurements to be taken, as well as some other sensors. Participants in the project will look through photos from the camera, and identify the material of the ocean floor (for example, sand or gravel) and what organisms they can see in each frame. The interface also allows measurements to be taken.

One way in which this system can be (and is being) used is for fisheries management of benthic species such as scallops. This enables better quotas to be set. One could also assess habitat damage from trawling activities. The interface is simple, and interesting images can be shared on Twitter and facebook if participants desire to do so.

You can check out the project website here, see how it works, and sign up if it grabs you!

Via Huffington Post.

Looking back in time: SAS Pietermaritzburg

Early in November Tony and I attended a talk held by the Fish Hoek Valley Historical Association and given by Mark Prowse of Underwater Surveys. Underwater Surveys have a sophisticated multibeam scanner that delivers extremely detailed three dimensional renderings of objects on the sea floor.

Prowse showed some images of the so-called Glencairn Barge, whose history is uncertain since none of the stone from Glencairn quarry was used for the harbour wall. He also showed images of the SAS Pietermaritzburg, one from 2003 (nine years after she was scuttled) and one from 2012.

It should be borne in mind that the Pietermaritzburg is in a very exposed and relatively shallow position just off Miller’s Point – far less protected than the Smitswinkel Bay wrecks – and bears the brunt of heavy swells and sea conditions more than those other wrecks do. There is, however, also the fact that a salvor has removed some portions of the wreck, and this has contributed to her deterioration. The chief, possibly man-made difference between the above photo and the following one seems to be that the forward superstructure has largely collapsed and been removed. The deterioration of the port side near the bow is simply due to the vessel collapsing as it rusts, and not as a result of any untoward activity other than heavy seas.

An article about the talk appeared in the False Bay Echo, and this is where the images in this post were sourced. The article has also been republished here. One of the images also appears on the Underwater Surveys website.