HabCam: Imaging the seafloor
HabCam is a tool that provides us with a unique glimpse at the seafloor through optical imaging. The HabCam vehicle flies over the ocean bottom taking six images a second creating a continuous image ribbon. On the surface we get real-time images and data in a completely non-invasive way. From the images we can learn about ecosystem change over different time and space scales, calculate biodiversity, classify habitats, map hard to survey species, learn about invasive species, and promote interest in ocean and ecosystem science. HabCam can also provide data to scientists and fishery managers to help them make more informed decisions. Currently, HabCam is used in two projects, a Research Set-Aside project to survey offshore sea scallop populations and NEBO (Northeastern Benthopelagic Observatory), a program designed to understand ecosystem change.
Images collected with HabCam are used for scallop research and habitat mapping. Currently there are over 18 million images in the HabCam database. You can view galleries of highlight images as well as search for images of specific organisms.
The HabCam Group works with commercial scallop fishermen, fisheries biologists, and engineers to develop non-invasive optical survey techniques to help imoprove the accuracy of scallop and groundfish population assessments.
Seafloor Educational Activities
Developed for debut at the Massachusetts Marine Educators Conference 2011
More info & Download the Activities