Sodus Point

The southeast corner of Lake Ontario has recently been established as a marine sanctuary by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As part of a (marine) Sanctuary Community Fund grant, UFI has installed an underwater video camera at the Sodus Point buoy location. The camera is contained within a watertight enclosure and is suspended from one of the buoy's mooring chains a few feet above the lake bottom (the depth at this location is approximately 24 feet). Video files are transferred via an underwater Ethernet (Cat5) cable to the surface where they are sent to cloud storage using a cellular modem.

What are we seeing?

The camera has a lot of degrees of freedom -- it can move right/left/up/down and rotate so that the bottom may appear to be level (which it is) or on an incline. If the bottom appears to be sloping, it is the camera's view, not the lake bottom. The motion of the camera is due to the movement of the mooring chain that it is attached to. When the buoy on the surface moves due to wind waves or boat wakes, the chains move.

The bottom is mostly covered by rocks which themselves are covered by zebra and quagga mussels and algae. The water color may appear green, possibly due to suspended algae, but more likely due to how light is absorbed as it passes through water with blues and reds being attenuated more than green, thus leaving green light to reach the deeper depths.

During periods of elevated wind and waves the clarity can change as the waves interact with the bottom sediments and suspend them into the water column resulting in reduced visibility (and higher turbidity).

Also visible, depending on the camera position, are the mooring chain(s) and temperature string.

What are we hearing?

A common sound is the mooring chains, particular during periods of elevated surface waves that cause the buoy to rock and bob resulting in frequent tugging on the mooring chains. When the lake is more settled, we often hear passing power boats as a mid- to- higher-frequency hum.