pauantabio / deep-sea-drop-cam

Low cost device to explore the deep sea up to 500 meters of depth

deep-sea-drop-cam

Blue Eye: a low cost Arduino-powered device to explore the deep sea up to 500 meters of depth at a cost of US$1,400.

In 2018, I attended All Hands on Deck, an event co-organized by the MIT Media Lab and NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, in which policy makers, scientists, activists and change makers in ocean exploration met to imagine new ways to empower an open, inclusive global community of ocean explorers.

This event motivated me to develop a low cost device to explore the deep sea, after I learned that "70 percent of countries have deep-sea environments within their maritime Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), yet only 16 percent of them are able to explore those environments. The scarcity of technological capability and knowledge leads to a lack of exploration, inappropriate or inadequate management decisions, and unaware populations" (source: MIT Media Lab My Deep Sea, My Backyard).

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Brennan Phillips PhD, Assistant Professor of Ocean Engineering at the University of Rhode Island, for sharing his knowledge, passion and enthusiasm with me. His advice was key for building the Blue Eye (he knows everything, but if he doesn't know, he knows who does!).

Many thanks to Cristobal Huguet for taking me to test the Blue Eye in the marine reserve and to Maria Cefalí PhD and Juancho Movilla PhD (Research Station "Jaume Ferrer" in Menorca, Spain) for their feedback and recommendations.