Home Sustainability Harbour Village Installs Underwater Reef Observation Cameras

Harbour Village Installs Underwater Reef Observation Cameras

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BONAIRE, DUTCH ANTILLES—Already a leader in efforts to ensure that Bonaire’s vibrant coral reef system continues to thrive, Harbour Village Beach Club has installed an innovative underwater video and data monitoring system. The equipment will let students on the island and throughout the world gain field research experience, along with a deeper understanding of how important coral reefs are to healthy coastal ecosystems and the underwater creatures inhabiting them. Harbour Village will work with the Teens 4 Oceans network and the group View Into the Blue to give students everywhere a way to view the fascinating marine life just off the resort’s sandy shore. Local programs such as the Junior Rangers, which Harbour Village helped become a new member of Teens4Oceans, now have the opportunity to use this state-of-the-art technology for aquatic research projects as well as connect with students in the United States and elsewhere to build communication and leadership skills through ocean stewardship.
 
Harbour Village is of particular interest to students and their marine science mentors, as the resort is home to a new set of coral trees installed last year in partnership with Coral Restoration Foundation Bonaire. The coral trees are managed by Great Adventures Bonaire (GAB), Harbour Village’s on-site dive operator. The coral nursery has about 70 elkhorn and staghorn species maintained by the GAB staff for eventual transplant to the Harbour Village house reef.

“The ability to monitor coral growth and marine life remotely and to record and archive in high definition using different methods opens the stage for students to gain first-hand experience in approaching a research question and gathering data,” said Jessica Gonzalez, Marketing Director of Harbour Village Beach Club. “We are thrilled to be able to take another step to help preserve Bonaire’s amazing coral reef environment and share some of the projects we have underway. We’re particularly excited about this program because of its direct impact on youth education and scientific research taking place on Bonaire and around the world.”

The system at Harbour Village includes two underwater cameras, one that rotates 360 degrees and also detects and measures environmental conditions that include the water’s pH, salinity, and temperature.  Feed from this camera be viewed at http://content.viewintotheblue.com/streaming/screensavers/bonaire/ptz/. There is also a second, static underwater camera focused on the Coral Restoration Foundation nursery. It will be used for live demonstrations on how the coral growing process works that will be broadcast on the Teens4Oceans website. General activity and fish behavior can be seen using this camera and used in studies on the Coral Restoration process. Feed from this camera can be viewed at http://content.viewintotheblue.com/streaming/screensavers/bonaire/static/.

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