ORCA EYE-IN-THE-SEA

New Tools. New Discoveries.
We have explored less than 5% of the deep ocean. There are great discoveries to be made and great resources to be tapped: new species, new pharmaceuticals and new industrial compounds. In order to develop effective strategies to preserve and protect these valuable resources we need to greatly expand our understanding. How many animals are there living in the vast depths of the ocean that remain unknown? How many have we never glimpsed because they outrun our nets and avoid our bright and noisy submersibles? What are their critical breeding zones and behaviors that might be inadvertently disrupted by human activities?

We are poised on a new frontier – one that replaces expeditionary science and snapshot sample collection with a permanent observing presence that can monitor and protect our planet’s vital ecosystems. It is a grand vision of a “wired ocean” and the ORCA Eye-in-the-Sea™ is at the leading edge of that vision. This novel technology, the world’s first unobtrusive deep-sea observatory, is now installed 3,000 feet deep in the Monterey Canyon 22 miles off the California coast and is sending video back to shore and then over the internet.

The ORCA Eye-in-the-Sea will be able to collect data continuously for months at a time and stream the video to shore, observing the animal life in the dark depths with as little disturbance as possible. It uses far red light illumination that is invisible to most deep-sea inhabitants and an innovative electronic lure that imitates the bioluminescent burglar alarm display of a common deep-sea jellyfish. The very first time this lure was used it attracted a large squid that is so new to science it can not be placed in any known family.

There has never been a deep-sea web cam – until now – and this major technological achievement is exciting both scientific and public interest. ORCA’s long-term vision is to one day combine its Eye-in-the-Sea and Kilroy technologies into observing systems that can be used to monitor and protect Marine Protected Areas.

Saving Seamounts With ORCA's Eye-In-The-Sea Mountains rising from the ocean depths, seamounts are underwater islands of biological diversity. Providing food, shelter, and spawning grounds for a vast assortment of marine life, from microbes to corals, fish to whales and dolphins, seamounts have been compared to the tropical rainforests of the sea. Yet like the rainforests, these underwater hotspots of biodiversity are being decimated. Destroyed by careless fishing, the fate of the seamounts has triggered international concerns that these largely uncharted underwater wildernesses will be ruined before we’ve begun to understand their value. Enter the ORCA Eye-in-the-Sea, an unmatched tool for discovering and observing life on seamounts. This novel technology—replacing the old snapshot method of scientific monitoring with this innovative deep-sea video camera--unobtrusively peers into the daily lives of deep-sea denizens. What Eye-in-the-Sea may find is anybody’s guess: Seamounts are home to myriad organisms found nowhere else. These underwater islands are a frontier of new species awaiting discovery and the ORCA Eye-in-the-Sea will soon be there for the unveiling, and more amazing still, so will you. Once research funds are available, the ORCA Eye-in-the-Sea will be sharing the secrets of the seamounts as they emerge, to an unlimited audience of professional and amateur explorers alike. And with knowledge, comes caring. Seeing these rainforests of the deep through ORCA’s Eye-in-the-Sea will shed new light on the path to their preservation.

RELATED LINKS

NOAA http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/05deepscope/background/eyeinsea/eyeinsea.html

National Science Foundation www.nsf.gov

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) www.mbari.org