Hi All,
Our team from Northeastern University and Proteus Ocean Graoup successfully deployed a Spotter buoy with a smart mooring payload in the Curaçao Marine Park. We are working with our partners in the government of Curaçao, including scientists like Science Director Mark Vermeij and Director Manfred van Veghel at the Caribbean Research and Management of Biodiversity Foundation (CARMABI). Our goal is to bring the PROTEUS™ undersea laboratory to fruition here by 2027. You can read more about this project at https://proteusoceangroup.com.
Our payload is a Sea-Bird WETLabs fluorometer measuring chlorophyll and turbidity. We are logging data at 1.07 Hz to the SD card and currently uploading statistics via Iridium every 30 minutes (with wave data at 1 hour intervals). Because we were worried about dive tour boats and fishing vessels hitting our buoys, we are very close to shore and had to adjust our cabling set up to make the watch circle small. So far, so good…the buoy has been working since 11 May. The park rangers check on it during their daily patrols, and last week removed some biofouling. We will post the code that built on Evan’s fine work.
Here are some pictures of the deployment. From top: Fabien Cousteau, Founder and Chairman, Proteus Ocean Group pointing to Spotter and Smart mooring buoys near Fuik Baai, Curaçao (photo courtesy Pier Nirandara); Mark Patterson (me) adjusting the scope of the system with fluorometer payload on node 1; Duvan Rios, Park Manager, during deployment operations.
In August, we are deploying a crude oil sensor (Turner Cyclops-7 fluorometer) at the second BM node. We are writing an interface to read the RS-485 messages produced by this system, and will share our code when completed.
In my next post, I will share a vision we have for making a Spotter buoy with 5 nodes going deep into the mesophotic zone to aid tech divers working there, as an information superhighway. We think this will allow a new way of conducting experimentation by researchers who use technical diving to reach these depths (50-150 m), who have just enough time to set up an experiment, but then must leave to begin a lengthy decompression. By having the experiments left behind talk to the Bristlemouth network with Spotter, intelligent sampling and near-real time monitoring can take place, that usually would require multiple dives.
Best fishes from Northeastern University
Mark