About 1,200 kilometers north of Perth, AU along the East Indian Ocean lies Ningaloo Marine Park, a deep reef ecosystem that supports a wide range of animals from whale sharks, turtles and other shallow and deep water habitat dwellers. The most unique feature of this 2,435 square km park is that the water depths range from 30m to more than 500m. In fact, 55% of Ningaloo Marine Park’s reefs are in water depths greater than 20 meters. These deep water reefs are called Mesophotic reefs, where light still reaches the seafloor and can be between 30 to 150 meters below the ocean’s surface. Because of the difficulties in accessing deeper parts of these marine environment, mesophotic reefs remain understudied globally. "By studying deep reef ecosystems and understanding the differences between shallow and deep water habitats will help determine the most important factors for long-term stability. “If these deepwater habitats are as important [...]

"Canada’s Arctic waters are imperative to the livelihoods, culture, and identity of Nunavut Inuit. The Government of Canada is working in partnership to protect these ecosystems for future generations and is investing over $550,000 in two marine environmental data collection projects in Iqaluit, Nunavut. These projects are being funded through the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program under Canada’s $1.5 billion Oceans Protection Program. The two research projects are gathering a wide-range of data to help better understand Canada’s coastal environment and how we can protect it. Arctic UAV Inc. is leading a project that is collecting coastal environmental baseline data using a remotely operated underwater vehicle (RJE Oceantbotics SRV-8). This innovative project is using video to document habitat, bottom substrate, and benthic species within inner Frobisher Bay. This data will complement many of the other ongoing baseline data collection projects in the Iqaluit area. A second project by Arctic UAV Inc. is creating georeferenced aerial [...]

Recently, the SRV-8 was featured in ECO Magazine's Polar edition. The article 'Exploration in Unmanned Environments' explains how complex ecosystems and underwater regions can easily be explored with the use of a highly maneuverable and adaptable #ROV like the SRV-8. Read the full article here.  "The exploration of our oceans is one of the most important missions to pursue in order to understand life on earth and the impacts of climate change for the future of our planet, and sometimes the most hard to reach places are the most crucial to explore. The arctic circle and northernmost regions of our planet are comprised of frigid waters, unforgiving environments and dangerous obstacles, including sea ice and glaciers that make it almost impossible to research for even the most trained professionals. Although with advancing technology and the use of ROVs, we are able to take a peak under the surface. Most ROVs come equipped with basic [...]