Remotely operated submersibles

The first step in discovering a marine natural product lead compound involves accumulating collections of the source organisms. Ideally the collections would include as many species as possible collected from a large number of sites reflecting the wide diversity of habitats found in the world s oceans. The development of SCUBA and both manned and remotely operated (ROV) submersibles has provided the technology required to effectively collect algae and invertebrate specimens from most marine habitats. Consequently, the major issue... 

To provide different removal times, replicate rack assemblies can be emplaced and retrieved separately. As an alternative to removal of replicate racks, it is possible to design a rack assembly such that individual racks or even individual samples can be removed by remote operated vehicles or manned submersibles. Although not proven, autonomous systems that release racks or individual specimens at intervals for surface retrieval are within the capability of modem ocean engineering technology. Once these racks reached the surface they could report their location through satellite systems for location and recovery by a surfoce vessel. 

We developed a submersible electrode assembly, connected to a 50 ft (24 m) long shielded cable (via environmentally-sealed rubber connectors), for the real-time in-situ monitoring of the TNT explosive in natural water [10]. Such sensor assembly consists of the carbon-fibre, silver, and platinum working, reference, and counter electrodes, respectively, and operates in the rapid square-wave voltammetric mode. Such a remote/submersible probe circumvents the need for solution pumping and offer greater simplification and miniaturization. The facile reduction of the nitro moiety allowed convenient and rapid square-wave voltammetric measurements of ppm levels of TNT. Lower (ppb) concentrations have been detected using a... 

---