Robots track lobsters for important habitat research project  

Small waterproof robots, designed to be attached to lobster pots, are being built and deployed for new research, to examine and monitor the marine habitat of Western Australia’s iconic rock lobster species.

The project, focusing on the western rock lobster (Panulirus cygnus), is being made possible through $115,000 funding from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC).

Department of Fisheries WA Senior Scientist Dr Simon de Lestang said the research added to a suite of projects that had been examining the potential causes of record low settlement numbers for juvenile rock lobsters (puerulus) in recent years.

“We have developed the project in consultation with the Western Rock Lobster Council and it is aimed at developing a cost effective tool to help researchers and fishers understand more about the habitat of the species,” Dr de Lestang said.

“It will enable underwater mapping of lobster habitats and determine its associations with lobster abundance and size composition.

“The robotic cameras, attached to rock lobster pots and float lines, will open a new window and insight into underwater communities between Shark Bay and The Capes.”

Dr de Lestang said the water proof robots were fully programmable.

“The can collect GPS information, while they are aboard a vessel, they can detect when they’ve been deployed in water and automatically activate a camera to capture high definition vision of a lobster pot’s decent to the seabed and later record water temperature and more vision at various intervals while the pot is sitting on the bottom,” he said.

“There is a real need for a cost-effective approach to collecting oceanographic and habitat information and we believe these POTBots (Pictures Of The Bottom) will be very useful.

“This project will develop and implement a system capable of providing constantly updating, geo-referenced, environmental data, including information on the composition of benthic (sea floor) habitats.

“While the initial focus will be on the West Coast Rock Lobster Fishery, this technology is potentially transferable to other fisheries in the State and monitoring and documenting ocean habitats to measure impacts of climate change.”

DoF Media Release Monday 5 December 2011