Rare underwater Antarctic drone footage reveals relaxed penguin-orca relations

Friday, 15 March 2019

Rare underwater footage of life beneath the ocean's surface in Antarctica has been captured by a New Zealand-made underwater drone.

The University of Canterbury's Dr Regina Eisert partnered with Auckland based Boxfish Research to study Type-C killer whales with a new remotely operated vehicle, also known as a drone.

It was part of Eisert's research into the Ross Sea marine protected area.

The footage is a snippet of what was recorded during 21 hours underwater at McMurdo Sound earlier this year.

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It includes Adélie penguins, whales, Weddell seals, bright red octopus and a glowing ctenophore.

Boxfish co-founder Ben King travelled to Antarctica with Eisert for five weeks, from January 4 to February 7 to capture the footage.

An antarctic seal captured underwater by a special Boxfish Research camera.

King said Boxfish had developed the drone over four-and-a-half years and a prototype had been in the water since late 2015.

It went on the market in September last year.

Boxfish co-founder Ben King with the ROV camera near Scott Base in Antarctica, before the first filming session earlier this year.

King said the trip went 'exceptionally well' and the camera performed well in the extreme cold.

'The colder it goes, the bigger the challenge. We had it down to about -15 [degrees Celsius] and in the water it's minus 2C. Theoretically, it should be absolutely fine to minus 30C.'

King said it was colder on land than in the ocean.

'The sea temperature down there is a steady minus -1.8C. If you go even deeper, it will actually warm up, because the water's at its maximum density at 4C, so the deeper you go, it will ultimately end up being 4C.'

Eisert said the technology was a game changer for marine science.

'Before this, I feel that my view of marine animals was quite biased,' she said.

'We would observe penguins waddling along and seals sleeping on the ice and whales on the surface, but they spend most of their lives in the water.

The overlap between penguins and Type-C killer whales was confirmed, with the drone capturing 'unconcerned' penguins freely entering and exiting the water in the presence of the whales, and being ignored by them, she said.

The Boxfish drone carried out 15 dives, gathered 21 hours of footage and reached depths of 210 metres.

Eisert's research is supported by Antarctica New Zealand and a Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship.