Live camera work is always a challenge. Add to that the cold underwater environment, communications, lighting and a host of divers, and things can get down right tricky. Any small issues that rear their ugly heads underwater are amplified ten-fold by the nature of the near-weightless environment... and another ten-fold by the unforgiving deadline of live TV. 

My name is Hans Bruning and I am the Mate on the R/V Fulmar. During this past week I have had the opportunity to be on board for the Immersion Presents live telecast. I've really enjoyed seeing all the hard work as well as the goofball antics going on behind the scenes and in front of the camera. 

I’ve been piloting Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) for nearly 3 years now, but this trip has been different because we’re using our newest ROV, the Hylas. It's much smaller than many ROVs I’ve had the pleasure of driving, but I’ve been surprised at just how well it performs its tasks. This little robot has certainly exceeded my expectations. 

Today's dives were conducted in a rocky reef just offshore from Monterey. We dove in about 120 feet of water and what was really striking to me was the contrast between this habitat and the kelp forest habitat that we’ve been looking at for the past few days. At this dive site there was not much algae, as we’re below the depth at which most of these marine plants are able to photosynthesize. We also encountered huge schools of rockfish, colorful nudibranchs, large white Metridium anemones, and even gorgonian corals. It’s amazing how diverse this community truly is. And how different it is from the other habitats in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. 

This is the fifth day of our project with Immersion Presents, and it has been tremendously exciting to see the whole project come together. We our currently involved in ROV (remotely operated vehicle) operations, and are getting fantastic footage of the reef below. There are Vermillion rockfish, Blue and Black rockfish, Plumed Anemones, and a whole collection of other animals that we are seeing.