ROV test

My new intern, Olivia, and my dog, Kraken,
look on as I check the ROV video feed. 

Friends, it is a good day when I get to spend some of my work time outside! This week, I am preparing for summer research on a scallop fishing boat. A key tool for data collection is my lab's small remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) - I'll use it to record videos from the seafloor to estimate the density and size distribution of scallops at each of my sampling stations. The last time our lab's ROV was used, it was in the Arctic. Kharis, my graduate student, used the ROV to recover our beloved settlement camera, CATAIN. Since being in the Arctic with Kharis, our ROV has been disassembled and shipped across the world. I needed to set up the vehicle and make sure it was working before heading out to sea myself.

I took the ROV pieces out their respective boxes one by one. Everything came flooding back - part names, how they fit together, the proper order of operations. I'm no engineer, but I know this one vehicle very well. The vehicle seemed to work fine in the lab, so we carried the boxes one by one across the parking lot to the edge of Eel Pond. Two of my lab members joined me to help with the vehicle and take a break from their computers. 

Overall, the test went well. One of the two lasers I had mounted on the front of the vehicle was flickering and hard to see underwater. When I opened the laser's battery chamber back in the lab, about half a teaspoon of water came out. Darn. I had partially flooded what was supposed to be a waterproof device. That leak explained why the laser hadn't been working properly. 

A quick text to my engineer husband helped me resolve the problem. Rinse the laser inside and out with fresh water, he suggested, then isopropyl alcohol, then leave it overnight in a sealed bag with some desiccant. I borrowed some desiccant beads from a friend's lab, followed the rinse protocol, and brought the laser back to life. I am relieved!

With all necessary parts working, the ROV should be ready for our scallop project!