In Search of Giant Squid
So far, no insurmountable problems. Working on Odyssey, we have mounted the
new sonar altimeter looking down, and remounted the old sonar looking forward. The devices will tell us how high the AUV is over the bottom, and how far it is from an obstacle in front of it. Brad has written software to interface the
new altimeter to the main vehicle computer. I hope this will improve our
ability to detect and avoid the underwater terrain.
We have the new French bathymetry for the region, and have learned it is very, very rough. If that were not sufficiently worrying, discussions with a local fisherman confirmed that there are a large number of ghost nets in the local area. About all we can do is hope we don't hit a net. If we do, we will have to try to drag for the net and hope we can bring it (with the entangled vehicle) to the surface. Naturally, we are thinking hard about methods to use our sonar to get close, but not too close, to the bottom. Hope the new altimeter works well....
Had a chance to visit with Emory Kristof (the National Geographic photographer) today, and look at some of his rope-cam footage. Some rather striking images! We probably will pursue the joint AUV-rope cam ops some time in the next couple of weeks. Emory told me that he snagged a ghost net with his gear yesterday. We definitely would have lost the vehicle, had we tangled with it.
I think we are converging on a strategy which focuses on water column searches
in the first phase, and for the near bottom work, starts high and works
progressively lower in the same geographic area. The idea is to build up both
experience and knowledge of a specific region before we incrementally work
ourselves down. Also, there are regions which are historically much less
fished and thus presumably less likely to have drift nets, so naturally we will work those areas first.
A great description of the Odyssey, including wonderful photographs and graphics, is available on the National Geographic Society's Kaikoura Web Site.
Look for the Odyssey's entry in the Crew section.
Smithsonian Giant Squid Overview Page
gene carl feldman / gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov