For years I have been considering getting an underwater case for my camera and starting to make more underwater iNaturalist observations. I made a few freediving with a GoPro but that camera wasn't really designed for macro shots. Getting a waterproof housing for my real camera terrifies me as I have heard too many stories of wrecked.

So hearing that someone I know bought an underwater drone definitely caught my attention.

The Power Vision PowerRay they bought can go a hundred feet down and stay down two hours. This certainly does seem a step up from freediving for a few seconds to take a few rapid photos. Compared to real scuba diving with a dive housing it isn't quite there, but it is certainly safer and less trouble and should be cheaper. Launching a ROV from a kayak seems much more practical than SCUBA diving from the same small vessels.

The Open ROV Trident however can go to 100 meters. Now we are starting to talk, that depth can certainly be done with SCUBA, but past 50 meters SCUBA starts getting pretty specialized. That means there must be some opportunity to find interesting creatures which haven't been all that well documented.

Then comes the Titan ROV which should start shipping any day. This drone reports a 150 meter maximum depth and 4 hour battery life. While it isn't exactly cheap, at around $3,000 this is certainly the lowest cost way to depths from 100-150 meters. It must be possible to track down creatures at that depth not only not posted to iNaturalist, but almost unstudied. Also, at the rate these drones seem to be improving within five years the cost of entry should be even more reasonable.

Too bad the last thing I need is another expensive hobby.