Off the coast of East Oahu, a GoPro was deployed underwater for +5 months and then was recovered surprisingly unscathed, despite a summer full of storms.
Algae crusted GoPro 12 after a 5 month deployment underwater. Note the relatively clean lens!
I’m working on a project to measure underwater visibility using a GoPro. The GoPro is anchored 35 ft deep to the bottom of the seafloor, nearly ½ mile offshore. It is programmed to take snapshots intermittently, so it can maximize battery life. This allows us to look back at underwater conditions over an extended period, including through storm events, without having to be present with the camera.
Matt (me), Lu‘uLive Founder, locking the GoPro into a concrete mount that stabilizes the camera through waves and ocean currents at the sea floor.
Although the GoPro’s battery only lasts two weeks, using GoPro Labs enabled power-saving program, the camera was left underwater for +5 months in a waterproof casing. Due to recent storms, it was unsafe to attempt to recover the GoPro any sooner. When we finally arrived at the project location, we were shocked to see the camera mount was standing straight up, with an algae crusted GoPro, looking fairly unfazed by a long term deployment.
A photo taken from the GoPro 12 on a clear day underwater. The bricks scattered in the background are marked at distances 20, 30, and 40 ft away from the camera, to assist in quantifying the underwater visibility (or clarity).
Although algae growth had formed over the face and sides of the underwater camera casing, the lens itself was nearly clean! We threw the camera gear in the kayak and returned to shore. When I got home, I plugged the camera into my computer and uploaded hundreds of videos taken 5 months ago with no issues whatsoever! Props to GoPro for making resilient housing!
I’m definitely planning to continue to use GoPro’s for my future underwater research.