Instrument: In Situ Ichtyoplankton Imaging System

Dataset: 
Florida Straits ISIIS physical environment data
Instrument: 
In Situ Ichtyoplankton Imaging System
Instrument Short Name: ISIIS
Instrument Description:

The In Situ Ichthyoplankton Imaging System (ISIIS) is an underwater imaging system aimed at capturing in situ, real time images of marine zooplankton of relatively low abundance such as fish larvae and fragile gelatinous organisms. The first prototype, delivered in 2007, was attached to a relatively simple vehicle towed by an oceanographic vessel at a speed of five knots. The vehicle, and associated imaging system and sensors, was moved up and down through the water column by paying cable in and out via an oceanographic winch. Subsequently, a new vehicle has been designed with the capacity of self undulation using motor actuated dive fins. 

The ISIIS system utilizes a high-resolution line-scanning camera with a Light Emitting Diode (LED) light source, modified by plano-convex optics, to create a collimated light field to back-light a parcel of water.

ISIIS was developed in collaboration between the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Atmospheric and Marine Science (RSMAS) and the subsea engineering company, Bellamare, LLC, located in San Diego CA. See complete description from RSMAS.

Reference:
Cowen RK and Guigand CM. 2008. In situ Ichthyoplankton Imaging System (ISIIS): system design and preliminary results. Limnol. Oceanogr. Methods. 6:126-132. doi:10.4319/lom.2008.6.126

PI supplied instrument name: ISIIS
Dataset-specific description

The In Situ Ichthyoplankton Imaging System (ISIIS) is a high resolution imaging system designed to image sufficient volumes of water to accurately quantify rare meso- and macroplankton such as fish and crab larvae, and also associated plankters (e.g., ctenophores, larvaceans, euphausiids, chaetognaths, hydrozoans, scyphozoans, pteropods, copepods) in situ (Cowen & Guigand 2008). An additional, finer scale imaging system has been added to the current system (ISIIS-2) and is capable of imaging up to 140 L s-1, with pixel resolution of 45-68 µm. This yields particle resolution down to ~ 450 µm, adding considerable breadth to the full size range of organisms that can be detected and enumerated. The ISIIS is also instrumented with a set of environmental sensors including: Seabird CTD (SBE 49), Biospherical PAR (QCP2300), Seabird dissolved O2 (SBE 43), and Wet Labs Fluorometer (ECO). All data are passed via fiber optic cable to an onboard computer, time-stamped for cross-referencing, and saved on a high-speed disk array. Oxygen data from 2014 were excluded as they were found to be outside the calibrated range of the sensor.