Presenting Lobster-cam on the Web
02:01 PM ET 08/26/99
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A new Web site is launching lobsters into cyberspace.
It's based inside a trap under the waters of Spruce Head, where a camera sends a new photo
to an Internet site every two minutes, sometimes showing a caged crustacean poking its
antennae around or climbing across the lens. The Web address is http://www.midcoast.com/lobcam/ The so-called
Lobster Cam was set up by the University of Maine's Lobster Institute to help advance
science while having a little fun in the process.
``I just thought it would be neat,'' said Robert Bayer, executive director of
the institute and a professor of biosystems science and engineering at the university.
``It was several years in the making and had a number of false starts with
technological problems and students working on it,'' Bayer said.
The first graduate student who worked on the project ended up with a waterlogged
camera. Bayer offered some extra motivation by promising an ``A'' grade and a case of beer
to whoever could get the thing working.
Trevor Davis, a senior aquaculture student from Augusta, is walking away with
the prize.
An avid diver with experience in electronics, Davis ran a coaxial cable and a
power cable through a garden hose to an underwater video camera housed inside the trap.
It connects to a computer on the dock at Atwood Lobster in Spruce Head. The
pictures can be reached through the Web site for Midcoast Internet Solutions.
Setting up a ``Web cam'' underwater is pretty unusual, Davis said.
``The marine environment is very corrosive and it's hard to have something with
any longevity.'' Steven Waterman, a South Thomaston Fisherman, has promised to pull the
trap regularly to wipe slime off the lens and replace the bait.
``I think its pretty neat,'' Waterman said. ``I don't think anyone has done it.
They've done it on nude beaches, and now this.''
The pictures can only be seen during the day until a burnt-out light in the trap
is fixed. Bayer said the lobsters aren't camera shy; sometimes they climb up on the camera
and peek at the lens. It's been in place for two months, long enough to catch the interest
of the International Lobster Congress in Adelaide, Australia.
The group has promised to keep the Lobster Cam up constantly on a computer
screen.
``Everybody's interested in what goes on in their trap,'' Bayer said.
