This past year has been full of the best sailing I’ve ever done. ⛵️🌊
Some of it on race boats! Learning the forward deck, setting sails, getting absolutely swamped by waves, and figuring out how to work as a team when you can barely hear each other through the wind. Thank you to all the wise skippers and supportive crew out there who taught me everything I know 🫡
Always grateful for the people who risk taking out their phones in the middle of a race for pics and videos! @mel_sea_ 📷
Manifesting some offshore races next 🤞🏻
ROVs & SHARKS
Huge congrats to our JCU x Biopixel x AIMS master’s student Martina Lonati (@martipermare ), who recently submitted her thesis on novel technology applications to study sharks and rays 🎉
As part of her research, Martina conducted a pilot study to test how effective remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) are for shark and ray surveys, whether they can be used for nocturnal and deep-water surveys, and how they compare to current methods 🧐
Why would we need ROVs to survey sharks and rays? Well, performing surveys on scuba is not always feasible or safe, especially at night and in deeper waters.
After testing ROVs at different locations, day and night, in wind and rain, and watching hours of video footage, Martina’s pilot study suggests that ROVs perform just as well as scuba surveys (but are safer!) and can be a viable method to collect nocturnal data on sharks and rays. Compared to alternative methods (e.g., catch surveys), they detected fewer species but similar numbers of sharks and rays.
That being said, these fancy underwater devices do come with a few limitations (they’re fairly $$$, and that yellow cable loves to get entangled…). Martina provides some practical suggestions and best practices on how to improve and effectively use this new technology 👩🏻💻
📷 @lacelidproductions
Martina’s project was supported by @australianmarinescience , @saveourseasfoundation , @jamescookuniversity and @biopixeloceans
It’s almost been one year since I started piloting ROVs looking for sharks and rays 🕹️ 🤖 🦈 Piloting a new technology is hard work… but definitely high rewards! ⭐️
