Yellow submarine in coelacanth search

Bobby Jordan -

It's yellow, light on fuel and drives best in wet weather. Now the National Research Foundation's first fully owned underwater research vehicle is on a mission to find a mysterious fish - 100m below rush-hour shipping traffic.
 
The remotely controlled 90kg Falcon Sea-eye will plumb the depths of the country's East Coast near Sodwana Bay early next year in search of the rare coelacanth, a strange "legged" fish once hailed as a "missing link".

The government-owned vehicle - which cost around R3-million, including support equipment - was tested last year off the coast of Mossel Bay.

"There is more territorial area under water in South Africa than there is on land. The deep ocean really is a new frontier that we know very little about," said Dr Angus Paterson, manager of the African Coelacanth Environmental Programme within the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB). "Almost everything we do is new."

The Sea-eye has already provided useful information and images, thanks to cameras mounted on its back. It also carries lights, a laser-scaling device to measure object size and distance, and a manipulator arm that can pick up small objects.

The driving team sit on the surface in a research vessel and watch the journey on a large TV screen.

Said Paterson: "Basically there is a need for South Africa to have its own research capacity in the deep-water environment. This ROV (remotely operated vehicle) currently goes down to about 300m, but we are looking to get one that could go down to 1000m."

He said the SAIAB team were also keen to research the effect of deep-sea trawling on the ocean bed. Results could assist in setting up offshore marine reserves in areas where the seabed and fish stocks need protection.

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