Stunning Whale Shark Video Captured by VideoRay ROV Near Offshore Platform

8-Pound ROV Gets into the Water Within Moments to Document 33-Foot Whale Shark Passing the Mustang Island 787 Platform in the Gulf of Mexico

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Exton, PA, January 7, 2002 -- VideoRay LLC today announced that its VideoRay ROV (remotely operated vehicle) was used to capture crisp underwater video of a Whale Shark in the Gulf of Mexico. The video was captured by Mark Miller, a research specialist who works for the Coastal Studies Institute of LSU, during a study of habitats off the Mustang Island 787 platform (MU787). Miller was working on a project funded by Minerals Management Services to perform fishery density and population surveys at working oil and gas platforms in the Gulf.

According to Miller, he was moving sonar transducers right before sunset when he saw the whale shark make a pass by the platform. Within three minutes as the whale shark made his second pass, Miller launched the VideoRay. During three more passes, Miller captured footage of 33-foot long whale shark – which Miller estimates was half the length of the platform. He gathered sixty-five seconds of footage in waters with forty to fifty feet of visibility.

“This footage would have been impossible to capture with our other ROV, which is heavy and takes a long time to get into the water,” says Miller. “The whale shark didn’t avoid the camera and the VideoRay didn’t seem to bother it at all. The VideoRay gave us the opportunity to document this unique animal, which has a living reef swimming around it.” Miller had tried to document the Whale Shark for six years.

VideoRay ROVs are used for underwater security and surveillance, search and rescue missions, wreck explorations, scientific research, and inspections of dams, culverts, piers, and other submerged structures. About the size of a boot box, the VideoRay is tethered and runs from a small generator, a car battery, or a standard wall socket. Its control box includes a joystick, bearing and depth readings, control of two 20-watt halogen lights, and tilt and focus of the high-resolution camera. The operator, located on a boat or land, watches a TV monitor to see the location of the VideoRay. The VideoRay can be equipped with scanning sonar, positioning systems, manipulators, GPS, sondes, and other instrumentation.

IMAGES: Please select and download images from the web: for general product photos; more photos from this video.

VIDEO: Available here.

For comments from Mark Miller, call 225-578-9411 or e-mail mmill16@lsu.edu.

Contact VideoRay LLC • 400 Eagleview Blvd. • Exton, PA 19341 USA • Phone: (610) 458-3000 • FAX: (610) 458-3010• www.videoray.com

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