Arduino for Marine Scientists

Attended a very interesting hands-on Arduino for Marine Scientists course at the University of Ghent which opened up a whole new box of ideas to play around with, both at work and in me backyard shed. 

Spotted in flagrante

Another proof of concept that the trigger works a treat. This time my next door neighbour came out for a nibble and acted as a model. He did not mind the red spotlight and tried to get the best of the bait bag full of whiting.

Shake it, fishy....

This is going to be my Easter holiday hack: to integrate an accelerometer chip (e.g. Wake on Shake board from SparkFun Electronics) inside the housing of an action cam, to trigger a video when the camera is being accelerated or in other words, ideally as soon as a fish pulls on the hook-less bait, the camera starts recording for a fixed period. CamDo Solutions published a really cool trigger option for a GoPro.....I reckon the same must be possible for an angling type underwater camera. The camera would need a wireless function to transfer files instantly. The tricky part fill be to fit everything into the casing and configure the wake and shake to the desired acceleration speed.

American beauty

Finally, the test tank is up and running. My new friend is still a little camera shy when the lights go on, but there is some interest in the bait bag. There is more to come....stay tuned.

Mini-flume tank

Created a nano test tank at home - this will become my little studio set up to test camera's and bait combinations with some stunt characters I will cast in straight from the North Sea. Current guests include the common starfish (Asterias rubens) and an edible crab (Cancer pagurus).

Tea time

In this post, I used a WaterWolf UW 1.1 camera to record an edible crab (Cancer pagurus) while it was munching on some whole squid tentacles for tea. The WaterWolf was, as far as I know, the first underwater camera on the market designed for angling. I will give it a crack one day, in one of the next posts, providing I find some reasonably clear water and not just that brown-green soup, we all know too well.

Big Day Out

This was my Big Day Out. I was invited to present my concept idea of an actively triggered underwater camera trap to one of the leading fishing camera manufacturers in Europe. The trip was exciting and a bit of a The Yes Men moment by suggesting that hook-less angling with a camera trap may also tickle an angler's fancy. To cut a fun story short....my own enthusiasm was met with a listening ear, but also some doubts. Understandably, as I learned later on, because there is a camera forthcoming by some competition which offers exactly that functionality that I was proposing!!! Can't wait til that thing hits my doormat.   

Crustaceous crunchtime

Testing whether various crustaceans are strong enough to pull the trigger. Kicking off this wee series with the common shore crab (Carcinus maenas), following later on will be an edible crab (Cancer pagurus) and finally a European lobster (Homarus gammarus). As bait, I will use a ground-up dough produced from fermented fishwaste to check how well these species will repond to its (hopefully) generous odour plume.

It works - first camera-trapped turbot ever???

After the "field" trials were a little difficult to say the least, blaming that bulky frame and picky fish, I went back to the lab, just to prove the concept. Still no award-winning footage, I admit, but at least the turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) do trigger short video sequences. They love a bait ball stuffed with fresh brown shrimps or cod chops. After their first greedy attacks, they become really wary though. All in all, the trigger worked well, and collected quite a few "trophy shots".

Thanks to Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food! All turbot were held for a research project approved by the Flemish Animal Ethics Commission.

Trout spotting in Lapland

In August 2017, I paid a visit to a fish farm in Northern Sweden. I was hoping that rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) would like to nibble on PhishPic's tasty bait ball. This time I rigged it with the Hugyfot Arius 1500 Divelight to turn on the spotlight. Check out the video below.

Turned out that rainbow trout were really camera shy. The bait ball filled to the brim with gooey pellet dough could not entice them at all. I know the whole rig still looks more like a BRUV (baited remote underwater video), but at least you can deploy it with a fishing rod. Liasing currently with a couple of talented engineers to realise my new, less bulky idea. So, watch this space in 2018. Happy New Idea!

Plunging in Portugal

Got the opportunity to travel to sunny Portugal again to soak prototype 2 in the sweet and salty brine for an hour or so, near Lagos. The guy at the local fishing shop recommended sardines as bait, but these were out of season, opted for horse mackerel instead. Nice view, but without sounding too impatient, there was no action whatsoever. Niente, nothing, nix, absolutamente nada.

About Dr Snapper

Dr Snapper promotes a new approach to underwater observation, aquatic surveys, or even recreational catch-and-release fishing. It is a very simple idea and there is already technology out there that allows exactly that: the fish itself actively triggers the camera when attacking a hook-less bait. So to speak, the fish snaps a selfie by rigorously pulling on the bait (see top panel, graphic above), which then sets the camera to record a fixed video sequence. Ideally, via an app and automatic wifi transmission when surfaced, all video files can be (re)viewed instantly (see bottom panel, graphic above). Such a way of underwater observation may not only appeal to animal-welfare conscious recreational fishers, or a young gadget-keen generation of outdoor enthusiasts,  but also for scientists wanting to non-invasively survey aquatic fauna. In that case: no fish are harmed, but still a great trophy shot!

Mingling with fish-mad minds

First small "market study" a.k.a. spending a day with a good mate onboard a North Sea fishing charter - pretending to talk serious game. But our disguise got caught out quickly, when I pulled out that bulky white PVC frame with a camera mounted on top of it.

Field testing - prototype 1

Splashing about in some of the cleanest quarry ponds around. The trigger worked a treat and snapped some pics of a rare four-legged, goggle-eyed aquatic animal.

The early beginnings...

A drawing based on ideas and a very first pre-prototype (named PhishPic) field tested in Arrawarra/Red Rock, NSW in Nov. 2011. Admittedly, the design resembles more a portable baited remote under water video station (BRUV), but in case of PhisPic that can be actively triggered by an approaching organism. The thought to marry this concept with angling appealed as well. Back then, one of the few decent underwater fishing cams was the Aussie towcam (http://towcam.com.au/): a cam for big game trolling. But only allowing continuous video capture - which I considered to be not very user friendly and convenient.

Since then, a lot has happened, and while a number of fishing cams are now out there on the consumer market, only one of them (as far as I know) offers an active, camera-trap like trigger mechanism which is comparable to Dr Snapper's working prototype (keep an eye out on the next posts) or Dr Snapper's other concept ideas (also still to come, watch this space).

Back then, in 2011, when playing around with the PhishPic pre-prototype, I am dead sure I cleaned that blimmin o-ring of the SeaLife Mini-II camera, but that thing kissed me goodbye after its first underwater touch. First, the pics went red, then it was dead. Farewell, bubble, bubble....

The making off - prototype 1

Check out this video below on how to hack a Rollei S-50 Wifi actioncam. We have soldered two wires to the shutter release and then drilled holes through the casing to connect a waterproof cable. The holes and connectors were sealed up with epoxy resin. The trigger was made of a piece of copper tin with two super magnets glued onto it, and which was framed on either side by two reed contacts embedded in epoxy resin. By pulling the piece of tin towards either reed switch, the camera fires. To the eye on top of the tin, a bait can be attached with fishing line. Hand made in Germany, thanks to my "Chief engineer" Dietmar :)