St. Croix, US Virgin Islands – March 2006
It didn’t take SeaView Systems long to find a reason to justify their recent purchase of a 1000 meter rated Seaeye Falcon DR . Before the vehicle was even delivered they had subcontracted with SeaVision Marine Services to support a NOAA Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment cruise to characterize the coral reef ecosystems off of Buck Island, St. Croix and South West Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.
Deployed aboard the NOAA research vessel Nancy Foster, the project required that SeaVision Marine Services, supported by SeaView Systems, position the ROV at locations along the seabed as specified by onboard marine biologists. From there they were to record video and other images of habitat to depths exceeding 800m (2624ft).
By teaming together and mounting SeaVision Marine’s Tracklink USBL system aboard SeaView Systems’ Falcon DR we were able to meet this goal. With its fiber optic data/video transmission and 19kg payload capability the Falcon was able to accommodate the USBL and a range of other sensors and cameras.
“This has been one of the highlights of my 13 years of working with ROVs” said SeaView Systems president Matthew Cook. “With the 100ft plus visibility it is not unlike flying about a flooded Grand Canyon.” “The project presented a perfect opportunity for the two companies to work together”, added Jeff Snyder of SeaVision Marine Services.
