The Pier Portal - A web controlled underwater profiling camera

Although piers have been used as platforms to collect oceanographic data for decades, few piers have incorporated the use of an underwater camera in their permanent suite of instrumentation, and to the best of our knowledge no pier has incorporated the use of a profiling underwater camera in its permanent suite of instrumentation. A profiling underwater pier camera would provide scientists access to high temporal resolution, long-term visual data which could be used to observe, in-situ, how ocean color and ocean life (along pier pilings) changes across depth and time. The camera would also provide a `portal' to the public to see what lies beneath the ocean's surface. This paper describes the design of the Pier Portal, a profiling underwater pier camera, to be deployed at the Cal Poly Pier in Avila Beach, CA.