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Northern Pacific Seastar Infestation

It is so hard to appreciate the magnitude of “an infestation” until you can see for yourself. One of our pilots was doing a quick ballast check off Constitution dock in Hobart, Tasmania a few weeks ago and saw this:

The Northern Pacific Seastar (Asterias amurensis), a voracious predator, was first spotted in Tasman waters in 1989 and declared a noxious species of national priority in 2019. This species is threatening native seastar and other marine species and, because of its prolific rate of reproduction, is now impossible to eradicate and difficult to control.

For more information, please go to:

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ROV Remote Control

We are learning of more and more examples of remote control of ROVs from shore. Recently, NOAA shared their experience of remote control of Deep Discoverer off the coast of Florida in early March:

“The ability to pilot the ROV from a shoreside location is the result of a team of very talented engineers who worked together to overcome the multiple challenges necessary to make this possible,” said Dave Lovalvo, [Global Foundation for Ocean Engineering], GFOE president. “GFOE is excited about the development of this capability and continues to advance our technology in the field of deep-ocean robotics.”

Full article at: Workboat.com 05may22

Contact us if you are interested in this capability for your BlueROV2!

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Undersea in Tasmania

UnderseaROV spent an amazing few days doing ROV support work off the Tasmanian East Coast and Flinders Island.  We enjoyed working off this wild and rugged coastline with it’s suitably challenging wild weather and seas. We hope to return soon. Exciting experiences like these are what drew our staff to ROV service work.

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MBARI discovers new jellyfish

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) captured absolutely stunning ROV footage of a new species of jelly, inside the midnight zone of Monterey Bay:

Atolla jellyfish or Coronate medusa, is a species of deep-sea crown jellyfish with a characteristic deep red in color and a hypertrophied trailing tentacle that is significantly longer than the others and thought to help capture prey.

Over the past 15 years, MBARI researchers have observed and collected numerous specimens of three types of Atolla-like jellies that lack the typical trailing tentacle. Researchers realized this rare jellyfish, living at depths of 1,000m to 3,000m and with distinctive thorny projections around its body or bell, had never been seen before. It has subsequently been named the species Atolla reynoldsi, in honor of the Aquarium’s first volunteer Jeff Reynolds.

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Toothy Anglerfish

The ROV Nautilus spotted this very toothy goosefish (type of anglerfish) at a depth of 1,091m on their recent expedition that was live-streamed. It is always so exciting to find unusual species when on dive, whether as a diver or as an ROV pilot:

You can check out Ocean Exploration Trust‘s current expedition live-streamed to YouTube at: EVNautilus Live