Mar 1, 2005 — It took only a minute for scientists to discover a new deep-sea species with an experimental infrared camera built in Southern California and light-emitting artificial lure.
Now, the National Science Foundation has agreed to spend $500,000 to refine the concept developed by the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce.
A large, 6-foot squid of a type never before photographed attacked the bait, a bioluminescent electronic "jellyfish," about 60 seconds after it was turned on in August off the Louisiana coast during Operation Deep Scope.
The Eye-in-the-Sea video system, which can sit on the ocean bottom for up to 24 hours, and the lure were used for the first time during the 10-day, $210,000 Deep Scope expedition into the Gulf of Mexico that set off from Panama City in the Florida Panhandle.
"This was phenomenal proof of concept," expedition co-leader Edith Widder said Monday. "In fact, it apparently has proven the concept because now I finally have funding from the National Science Foundation that is going to allow me to do this in a more advanced manner."
Widder, a senior scientist at Harbor Branch, said the two-year grant will be used to develop Eye-in-the-Sea so it can be connected to a mooring 3,000 feet deep in California's Monterey Bay.
The mooring would provide electrical power, eliminating the need for batteries, and allow the camera to send a continuous stream of video ashore for months at a time.
The original camera was built as a student project at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif., for $35,000 and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute paid for the batteries.
"I got some money from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to put it in a bottle and to build a tripod for it," Widder said. "It's kind of been a stone soup, put together with little bits and pieces of money."
NOAA also funded the Deep Scope expedition. Another one is planned for this summer in the gulf to again photograph and perhaps capture the mystery squid and other rare or newly discovered species.
