Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations attacked by sharks

AIMS scientists developed Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations (BRUVS) in order to monitor vast areas inaccessible to research divers. BRUVS consist of tourist-grade “HandiCam” video cameras in simple underwater housings made of PVC sewer pipe and acrylic, with a canister of minced pilchards on the end of a bait arm in the field of view. The housings are held in steel frames, and are deployed in strings of 4-6 under separate ropes and floats, to be picked up after one or two hours filming at the seabed. BRUVS have been used by AIMS to compare shark populations at Scott Reef with an unfished Commonwealth marine reserve. BRUVS revealed a marked difference in the abundance of sharks at Scott Reef and the protected area. The number of sightings in the video recordings indicated that sharks were on average 4-17 times more abundant in the reserve. This result was reinforced when the time it took for sharks to appear in each video was analysed and on Scott Reef was, on average, twice that in the reserve. Details can be found at http://www.aims.gov.au/docs/research/monitoring/seabed/video-monitoring.html. Video footage of a hammer head sharks & a tiger shark feeding on a bait cannister can be viewed at http://www.aims.gov.au/movies/web-sharks.mpg.