GA339_SOL5650 Oceanic Shoals survey marine underwater video and still images

The Oceanic Shoals survey (SOL5650, GA survey 339) was conducted on the R.V. Solander in collaboration with Geoscience Australia, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), University of Western Australia and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory between 12 September - 5 October, 2012.

During the survey, underwater video and still images were acquired using the AIMS towed camera system. Video was acquired using a forward-facing camera (files available in sub-folder 'NERP_TOWVID_VIDEOS'), and still images were acquired with a downward-facing camera, with images taken every 10 seconds (files available in sub-folder 'NERP_TOWVID_STILLS'). Video was converted from tapes to compressed .avi files. Video was characterised onboard in real-time using the AIMS' Towvid characterisation scheme. These characterisations are available in sub-folder 'NERP_TOWVID_CSVs'.

Location of ship movement during camera and sled transects are included in the spreadsheet 'SOL5650_GA0339_Stations.xls'. Exact location of the camera during deployment is recorded via the USBL and can be found in sub-folder 'NERP_USBL'.

Video and associated still images were not acquired from STN13CAM09. Video is not available from 27CAM18 and 28CAM19 (these stations were not on the digital files supplied by AIMS), although still images and Towvid characterisations were supplied. Video Tape 12 is the same as Tape 11, as supplied by AIMS. All video files were renamed at GA with a prefix listing stations contained on a given tape/file.

In addition to underwater imagery, laboratory and deck photos were taken of specimens collected from the benthic sled. These are included in the sub-folder 'NERP_SPECIMEN_PHOTOS'

Video and image files or associated parent folders are named by station number, gear code (CAM = underwater camera system, BS = benthic sled) and then the deployment number. For example '48CAM35' represents a video transect from Station 48 that was the 35th video transect on the survey.

Data is presented here exactly as acquired onboard and converted by the AIMS, and positional accuracy or image quality has not been verified.