REMUS – Remote Environmental Monitoring UnitS is an autonomous underwater vehicle that swims in a pre-programmed mission to sample the water currents, salinity, temperature, and dye concentration. Here you can see us testing out REMUS the week before our first dye release on September 16th! Things did not quite go as planned as you can see…
-
- Geno preparing a REMUS transponder
-
- Geno and Andre setting up computer communications
-
- REMUS starts its mission!
-
- Fortunately the water was clear enough that we could spot REMUS when it got stuck in kelp!!
-
- REMUS lassoed with the boat anchor to recover it!
-
- REMUS caught in kelp, photo taken by Sarah Giddings
REMUS became tangled in an underwater kelp clump that was not visible at the water surface. REMUS was 5m under the surface but fortunately we had a good estimate of its location based on acoustic transponders and the water was very clear so we were able to see it! After many failed attempts, we were finally able to hook it with our boat anchor line and recover it… with some kelp still attached!