ROV Lobstermoose: part 2

"Hey look, I match the ROV!" - Kharis Schrage

It was a sunny summer day in Woods Hole. Tourists sauntered along Water Street, crowding the sidewalk and shops. Small, lazy waves lapped against the seawall in Eel Pond. The air smelled of algae and shellfish. 

In the midst of this idyllic scene, two scientists squatted on wooden beams on the edge of Eel Pond. One of them opened a heavy black case and began plugging cords into their respective ports. The other slowly lowered a lime-green robot into the sea. With the twist of a joystick, ROV Lobstermoose descended and zoomed away. The lime-green shell was still visible a meter below the murky surface. The two scientists called back and forth as they tested the vehicle's steering and got to know how it moved. It may have looked like aquatic playtime, but the scientists were training for a research mission in the far north. 

Friends, I am super excited that my little ROV (named Lobstermoose after my friend's dog) is headed out to sea on its first research mission! In fact, this technological toy will be used to recover another technology from my lab: CATAIN. That's right, Kharis is going to recover CATAIN from the high Arctic, where we deployed it last January. We planted the system on the seafloor at 79 N in Kongsfjorden, and now, we get to bring it back to the surface to see if it worked!

The original plan was to recover CATAIN on a SCUBA dive, but the ROV is much more practical. When Kharis and I calculated how much time and money it would take to get both of us ready to dive in freezing water, shipping the compact ROV system was a no-brainer. I'm really grateful that I have the ROV to help enable research in such a challenging environment. 

I had fun training Kharis on the ROV, and I hope her trip to Svalbard is successful!