Boxfish Research ROV marks record breaking dive

Boxfish Research said it has delivered a record-breaking depth range during its latest deep sea mission in New Zealand.

According to the company, this represents the first underwater deployment of a small, battery-operated ROV to reach 710 metres, exceeding the industry standard.

Boxfish said its R&D team tested various configurations before the mission took place to ensure that the ROV could reach the seafloor below 700 metres within 15 minutes.

During the survey, the surface external video recorder collected 4K uncompressed video of the ocean floor. This allowed quick review of the footage, higher quality video recording and also recording of long missions, Boxfish explains.

“We pride ourselves in creating an ROV that is easy to operate, setup, and deploy to depths that only work-class ROVs can reach,” says Ben King, co-founder, Boxfish Research. “Deployments such as this one require a fast and easy to use underwater drive, making the Boxfish ROV the perfect solution for this mission.”

The Boxfish ROV is designed to withstand harsh underwater environments, boasting 14 hours of battery life and up to 17,000 lumen lights for unparalleled vision in dark environments. The team proved that a survey of more than 3 kilometres in significant cross currents was possible at this depth on a single battery charge.

The Boxfish team also deployed the Boxfish 360 to the same depths. The Boxfish 360 is a professional underwater camera with depth rating up to 1,000 metres and recording time up to 4 hours.

“The latest record breaking depth range conducted by Boxfish now sets the standard for all future deep sea deployments, spanning across various industries worldwide,” the company said.