INSTALLATION FOR IN SITU MONITORING THE QUALITY OF HABITAT OF AQUATIC ORGANISMS

摘要

An installation for in situ monitoring the quality of a habitat ofaquatic organism with minimal disturbance to the aquatic organisms. Ina first aspect of the present invention, the monitoring installation usesinvertebrate sentinel species such as mussels, clams, oysters and scallops.The monitoring installation comprises broadly, a buoy; a mooring and amonitoring apparatus comprising; a framework having an upper endconnected to the buoy and a lower end connected to the mooring. Thereis also provided a camera attached to the framework. The camera isadapted for underwater operation and has image data generating andtransmitting capabilities for transmitting a number of images to a remotereceiver. A support structure is detachably mounted to the framework andhas rotary retainers for movably supporting one or more socks of mollusksin front of the camera.