The 360 Underwater Cam Project logs underwater life presence and fish counts in various regions of the Mandahl Bay APC Wilderness Preserve in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

Using 360 Degree view cameras, we get close-up, low impact observations of the invisible world of Mandahl Bay.

Cameras are placed at specific GPS referenced locations day after day for an hour at a time. By studying these videos frame-by-frame, Environmental Rangers can identify and count species of fishes in a given area. These videos also allow views of aspects of fish behavior not observable by a diver. Comparisons over time, season after season, should give a baseline for current life presence and the ability to monitor future Eco-system and climate change effects.

360 degree technology allows Rangers to record visual changes to water turbidity and currents as well as the concurrent rapid shifts in life presence. As this project progresses, Rangers will develop research methodologies to gather even more information while reducing the effects of ‘observers affectinging what is observed’.

On this page, we will post various series of recordings for our Virgin Islands community of Citizen Scientists to peruse and make their own observations and discoveries.

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