Live-stream from underwater – Eastern Australia

We streamed live from two BlueROV2s to remote viewers at Aminya Village (a BaptistCare residence) via Zoom a few weeks ago, which was very exciting for all involved.

One BlueROV2 streamed underwater images from Two Fold Bay in Eden NSW to show us amazing sponges and ascidians, while fighting bad swell and difficult visibility. Did you know that both sponges and ascidians are animals, not plants? We were also treated to a stunning red Gorgonian Fan, which was probably older than any of our participants.

The second BlueROV2 shared live video from Lake King in Gippsland VIC, where the bream populations are starting to recover and lots of fry (baby fish) were visible under the nearby jetty. Our pilot also found and recovered a bottle from the seabed floor (tricky manoeuvre) and has taken it to the local historical society for identification.

The initial feedback about the bottle recovered in Gippsland is that is is likely a Leggos Rations container from 1894-1940, probably from railway workers in the area.

Real-time underwater video clean-up

Undersea has been working closely with SeaClearly to bring video processing to underwater ROV video feeds in real-time. Here is an example of what SeaClearly does:

Grey nurse shark filmed by zoom camera carried by BlueRVO2 on left – enhanced with SeaClearly on right

Streaming live from underwater Batemans Bay

We were just running a quick test of sharing live video from a BlueROV2 in Batemans Bay (yes, underwater!) via Zoom. We saw some incredible sponges, coral fans, ascidians, and a nudibrach which we don’t catch site of too often:

And then our ROV pilot spotted this amazing Southern Knight seahorse, clinging to a sea tulip – WOW

Southern Knight seahorse having a chat with White Ear fish

[EDIT] You can read more about this “Seahorse meets Fish” in the Bega District News 03jun21