The device based on need and simplicity for a tool that could be handled by one man onboard the operation vessel that has an overhead boom and hoist. The device is fashioned from an eight foot long tear shaped aluminum sailboat mast extrusion. In vertical position above the deck the black & white underwater camera is placed at lower end with its single eye viewing out from the aperature of the tube end. Here it is well protected from current and being smashed into the bottom. Experience has show that the device easily passes through seagrass beds with out fouling. The tube has a fixed rudder on the lower end and is tethered forward to the control yaw. On the boat end of the operation Seaclops can be raised and lowered feet or inches from the bottom with the electric hoist.
11/3/02
TEL
For more information contact:
Thomas Leach
P.O.Box 207
Harwich Port, MA 02646
Day Phone: 508-430-7532
E-mail: seaclops@hotmail.com
Harwich - Tom Leach is the first to say that Harwich played only a minor part in the recent search and rescue efforts associated with a Beechcraft 1900D plane crash in Yarmouth. But if circumstances had been a little different, the Harwich harbormaster and his innovative underwater camera could have made the difference between life and death for any survivors. Leach and assistant Harbormaster Heinz Proft were among those who received an urgent call from the Coast Guard last Tuesday when the plane went down in Lewis Bay. Initial reports indicated that upward of 20 people had been aboard the plane. "The Coast Guard called us back," Leach recalled. "They were on another mission about 50 miles east. Heinz and I and the Chatham Harbormaster responded." Twenty-four minutes later, the harbormaster's vessel, The Commander, was in Yarmouth waters. By then there was more information: There were two crew members aboard the plane. In addition, the search and rescue mission had tragically become a search and recovery mission.
Once on site, Leach dropped a unique underwater camera device known as The Seaclops into the water. Developed by Leach in 2002, Seaclops is an underwater surveillance tool. A video camera is nestled inside an 8-foot-long aluminum sailboat mast extrusion. The hollow mast is fitted with weights to help keep the camera facing toward the ocean floor. The tube is attached to the boat via a cable, which is threaded through a boom. This allows the operator to raise or lower the camera, depending on the depth of the water. Aboard the boat, the camera's signal can be viewed on a video monitor, and recorded, thanks to an onboard VCR.
Leach played some of the footage he had shot during last week's recovery efforts. The camera captured scattered debris on the ocean floor. Watching, Leach noted that he could press a global positioning device (GPS) whenever he saw debris on the screen, thus marking it for future recovery efforts. As it turned out, Barnstable rescue divers at the site of the plane crash were able to quickly locate the largest pieces of wreckage. In deeper water with strong currents or colder temperatures, Seaclops could scan a large swath of ocean floor much quicker and more safely than a group of divers. "This way you don't have to burn your divers out," he said, pointing to the screen. "You can just drop them where the debris is."
Seaclops can also be used for research and study purposes. This week, Leach and assistant town administrator René Read will travel to the waters off the edge of Red River Beach to examine what are believed to be extensive beds of codium, a leafy green seaweed that has plagued the popular beach with its foul odor. Leach said that the camera remains in the prototype stage, although the fire department has expressed some interest in helping out. The department recently donated unused weights from its workout room to help Leach find a better ballast load for the camera, which will help prevent it from spinning out of control when the boat accelerates.
Seaclops represents Leach's second foray into the world of underwater innovation. Leach and retired Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution machinist Will Bennett co-developed the Starlight, a high-speed underwater wing, in 2000.
I have now discovered that there is now plenty of techology way ahead of me. Still we have enjoyed our foray into the benthic and we will continue to to work toward a more portable design that can tend bottom while towing at greater speed. Tom Leach 1/15/06.
Other website of interest:
Nova Ray marketed 2004-2005
Global Vision Tow-able Underwater Video Camera
National Geographic Critter Cam