Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) in Lake Superior Research

Spotlight On: The ROV - all traditional sampling is remote. We send down a rosette or a ctd or a PONAR, but WE never get to see … close up and personal … the lake water and lake floor environment. Until now. We have a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) on board. This mini-submarine is equipped with props that permit it to be moved back and forth - up and down, spotlights to illuminate the bottom and forward and reverse video cameras. We use the ROV here to examine concentrations of plankton in the water column and to conduct long term night observations of life at the bottom. The night ‘stake out' on the bottom is incredible. Zooplankton floating eerily by suspended in bottom currents, a darting whitefish, slowly crawling crayfish, and mysids cruising around the limits of our light beams with their large eyes reflecting like automobile headlights. We all agree to nominate the ROV output for a new satellite TV station - ‘all benthos, all the time'!

Return to Cruise