Tuesday, December 20, 2011 By Peter Lee UNDERWATER ROV: Juniors Aris Avedisian and Zane Toyon control the new underwater robot. Students studied marine life and conducted dish surveys while using the camerca feature of the ROV. - Adrian Hairapetian Advertising Marine Science explores the sea (December 20, 2011) -- Just recently, on Dec.7, 12 Clark students from the Marine Science and Environmental GIS classes, took field trips to the Santa Cruz Islands. With the guidance of teacher Dominique Evans-Bye, the students took a boat out to the waters of Anacapa to survey water samples using the underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for the Geographic Information System classes. It was only last year that Clark students didn’t participated in a competition known as the Lexus Eco Challenge. Students were able to win $70,000 in this competition by using the very same underwater ROV to survey water samples in the ocean, finding high levels of metal in California lobsters. This year, students went out to the island waters to gain a better understanding of how to use the underwater ROV for future projects and the Lexus Eco Challenge. Throughout the year, students in Marine Science have had to become technologically advanced in order to conduct this level of research. “In class, I learned about how to read and use the ArcGIS mapping system, but I had to come to an after-school session in order to learn to how use the underwater ROV,” said junior Adriel Dela Paz. “Controlling the underwater ROV was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. The underwater ROV is supported and maintained from a laptop that we carried onto the boat, but I just had to use a controller, similar to a video game controller, in order to deploy and control it.” To begin their research, students first had to find a good location to survey the open water. When the boat reached its destination, students worked alongside professional divers, who took fish samples, while the students controlled the machinery. The team collected their research twice, with each stop taking about 30 minutes to an hour. However, not all the students controlled the underwater ROV. Senior Dikran Matevosyan was one of the few students who had snorkeled with Evans-Bye and the diving crew during the field trip. “While underwater, I took fish surveys of the different marine life that I saw and observed,” Matevosyan said. “Snorkeling was actually a lot of fun because I got to see unique species of fish, while everyone else worked on the boat. The only thing I didn’t like was swallowing salt water and getting tangled in the kelp forest many times.” After snorkeling, Matevosyan came back onto the boat and showed his colleagues his results, while Evans-Bye and the diving crew continued to go into the ocean depths. Once everyone had finished their underwater adventures, the divers, students and Evans-Bye enjoyed hamburgers prepared by the ship’s staff. “Even though the field trip was free,” said Matevosyan, “all the students gave tips to the ship’s crew. I would definitely love to go again to another Marine Science field trip.”

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