Continuous underwater observation of animal behavior is difficult given the additional tasks a diver is faced in maintaining his life support, not exceeding decompression limits, maintaining position, not disturbing the animal under observation and at depths of 150 to 200 feet being able to fend off the effects of nitrogen narcosis which can subtly cloud one's observational ability. It was apparent that to get continuous observations of both shallow and deep water tilefish we needed some type or remote camera.

Rubblecam 1 is a 1 inch by 1 inch low light level video camera in a custom underwater housing. Power to the camera and video from the camera are brought to the surface along a single relatively small cable. The entire outside dimensions of the camera are only 3.5" X 3.5". A 3" plastic tube and two flat plates sealed with O rings are used in this very simple design. Connectors are standard Ikelite 4 pin underwater connectors of a type used by Ikelite on their strobes.

Rubblecam 1's first deployment was in Belize Jan 1995 from the Wave Dancer . We found that the cable used to power the camera and receive the video had to be floated out and away from the boat to the site. We also found that the site needs to be at the anchor end of the boat.

Our first deployment of the camera was with the cable directly off a side of the boat. This resulted in the cable being dragged over the bottom and the relatively small cable was quickly abraded and broken as the boat swung above the site.

It was found that drying out a flooded broken cable was not simple, and that while a cable can be repaired it was best to perfect a deployment method that would keep the cable off the bottom as much as possible.

We realized we needed to deploy the repaired cable along the line of the anchor line to minimize strain on the cable. Use of the anchor line as a supporting guide line was not appreciated by the captain and forbidden after one use.

With the help of the Wave Dancer crew we rigged some plastic floats to support the cable out to a site near the anchor. The cable was thus deployed along the surface and directly to the bottom. From the bottom the cable was laid another 100 feet to the observation site.

Rubblecam 1's second deployment in the Solomons was more successful. Here it was deployed at 180ft for 36 hours. John Pohle has reviewed the tapes and is analyzing the data.

We plan on deploying both Rubblecam 1 and a starlight version Rubblecam 2 this January from the Wave Dancer, and then in March from the Telita in New Guinea and then from the Bilikiki in the Solomons. Belize work is in only 30 to 60 ft while the South Pacific work will be a around the 200 foot depth of the deep tilefish.

Footnote:

By assembling the spare parts for rubblecam 1 Nick now has the twin brother to rubblecam1 and had brought it to the artic and great white filming trips to alert the dive crew when the sharks are in the water near the shark cages.