URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2021_M

“The purpose of this project is to create a tool that we can use for research, communication, education, media purposes and community outreach,” said Anya Hanson, director of URI’s Diving Research and Safety Program. “With the camera, we can capture really intriguing and powerful underwater imagery that can be inspiring for communication efforts.” Plastics that enter the ocean may sink beneath the surface, literally hiding the problem from public view. Hanson knows from personal experience how widespread plastics can be harmful to both the health and beauty of the underwater environment and its creatures. “When you’re swimming along and you see a plastic bag or fragile marine life tangled in fishing line, it just breaks your heart because you know it’s impacting the overall health of the environment,” said Hanson. “The purpose of this project is to create a tool that we can use for research, communication, education, She has seen countless plastic bags, wrappers, plastic bottles and fishing lines polluting the ocean floor – an experience that every diver sadly shares. Professor Peter J. Snyder, URI Vice President for Research and Economic Development, made the strategic decision for the University to invest in this project, because: “Plastics are threatening our environment. They are threatening our food web. They are in the air we breathe and in the oysters that we eat out of our own Narragansett Bay. It’s in the water we drink -- even bottled water, and in fact especially bottled water.” Snyder oversees all URI research activities, which allows him a unique perspective when it comes to the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle complex societal issues like plastics pollution. media purposes and community outreach.” - Anya Hanson

ANYA HANSON Director URI Diving Research and Safety Program

Photo by Richard Vevers

A cutting-edge camera is being designed, prototyped and prepared for testing at the University of Rhode Island (URI) Narragansett Bay Campus, and it will provide both students and scientists with a better visual understanding of the plastics pollution that hides there while attracting greater public interest in ocean science. The Hammerhead camera will offer a three- dimensional (3D) view to researchers finding ways to support healthier oceans analyzing both the sea floor and fish populations. In addition, the camera will be able to use GPS to create accurate maps that can be compared point-by-point over time. Research divers and faculty, from URI’s Diving Research and Safety Program (Division of Research & Economic Development) and the nonprofit organization The Ocean Agency (TOA) are collaborating on this breakthrough camera system proposed by TOA’s founder and CEO, Richard Vevers, who created the Seaview camera that took Google Street View underwater. The camera system is inspired by the shape of a hammerhead shark. A diver will steer the device by literally riding on its back, as it is propelled forward by an underwater scooter. At the front will be two metal arms, or “stalks,” with pairs of cameras pointing forward and downward to allow for high-resolution “binocular vision” and, thus, the ability to render images in 3D. Using GPS, each photo’s specific location will be recorded so later researchers can return to the same place and determine changes in flora, density and types of marine life, and presence of visible human pollutants over time.

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