On Wednesday the team had a video conference with GoPro. They showed them the Remote Camera System prototype for the Manta Project. This project consists of four females that have designed and engineered their own Remote Camera System to station on the bottom of the Pacific. They will be studying the movement of Manta Rays along with identifying them. Over the course of several years the migration of Manta Rays has changed drastically along the coast of the Palau Islands. The female students will discover first-hand the pattern of Palauan Manta Ray’s.

The marketing team showing off their prototype

The students will be taking their Remote Camera Systems and stationing them on the coral reefs and ocean floor for a five day period to track and study the movement of Manta Rays. The cameras have been designed to take a picture every 10 seconds and run from 6am-6pm each day. After the students are done with their first experiment they will study their findings and report them to Manta ID Project in Palau and the Governor of Ngardmau State. They will also be recommending their findings to the National and State Governments on site management and demonstrate how to observe and study the mantas around tourist sites without using invasive tagging methods. The mission will be taking place while we are in Palau sometime between March 26th and April 12th 2015.

The video conference of us speaking to Kelly Leggoe

Manta Rays are a huge tourist attraction around the Palau Islands. They are a subclass of sharks, fish, rays, and skates. They are part of the family of Devil Ray’s. The range from 10ft-16ft in width, have a lifespan of over 30 years, and have natural predators of large sharks and killer whales. The threats they face in Palau are boat strikes, mooring lines, and tourism pressure. The feed alone or in groups, on small planktonic organisms, and occasionally small fish. Manta are also a huge part of cleaning stations. Cleaning stations on the reef are used for satisfying the grooming of fish from parasitic species. Mantas spend hours each day getting cleaned.

 

Photo of a Manta Ray taken by Richard Brooks

Our Remote Camera system uses a go pro camera to shoot time lapse over a 5 day period. The small green circuit board is a time lapse intervalometer that we are using to program one camera shot every ten seconds. We also plan on programming it to only run from 6am to 6pm each day. We replaced the standard go pro battery with a 12 volt battery elimantor from cam-do.com

Our camera system with the time lapse intervalometer
from cam-do.com

Our Remote Camera System Prototype

On Monday our never before seen GoPro video of our last expedition will be posted up on Facebook so check it out and share it with your friends! We will also try to post the link on here in our next blog.