MBARI's version of an extension cord. 🔌
About the size and weight of a small compact car, the Benthic Rover moves very slowly across the seafloor. Typically it takes photographs of the animals and sediment in its path. In this video clip, however, you can see it unwinding an extremely long underwater cable.
This power cable connects to the MARS observatory—an underwater powerhouse observatory that sits at the edge of the Monterey Canyon and provides oceanographic instruments with a full-time power and data connection to shore. This deepwater site is close enough to shore so that scientists can install or modify test instruments without spending days or weeks at sea. The MARS power and data cable follows a 52-kilometer (32-mile) arc across Monterey Bay to the observatory site. This curved route was chosen to avoid areas of rocky bottom and submarine landslides around Monterey Canyon. Along most of its course, the cable is buried about one meter (three feet) below the seafloor to minimize its effects on marine life and reduce the chance of its being snagged by anchors or fishing gear.