The Eye of the Fjord (Fjordens öga) is the name given to the two underwater cameras at Kristineberg Marine Research Station. One sits in an eelgrass meadow at a depth of five metres, the other on a ledge by a rock face at 22 metres. The cameras offer a window onto an underwater world where fish, crustaceans, nudibranchs and birds live undisturbed. So far, 50 species have been spotted in front of the cameras.

'Only the seals seem to have worked out that the pyramid-shaped "rocks" aren't like the others,' says Marko T Wramén, who is responsible for the Eye of the Fjord at Kristineberg.

Infrastructure for research

The cameras were installed with two aims in mind. The first is to give researchers a new tool for studying life beneath the surface without disturbing it. Over time, this will build up a large body of data on the animals that pass in front of the cameras.

'At what time of year does a species appear, and when is it most abundant? Does that vary from year to year? Are the species at five metres the same as those at 22? The observatory can answer questions like these, because it records around the clock,' says Marko T Wramén.

These variations can also be compared with data from the station's other sensors, which measure water temperature, salinity, plankton and oxygen levels.

The second aim is to raise awareness of the ocean.

'The more people learn about the plants and animals living down there, and how much is really going on beneath the surface, the more likely they are to want to look after our oceans. And it's entertaining too, which is a bonus. Think of Sweden's famous slow-TV elk migration, only with more action and more species.'

Sharper picture on the way

Work is under way to improve the Eye of the Fjord on several fronts. The IT system and internet connection are being overhauled, and the cameras also need a new platform to stream from.

'We want to find a way to stream the video in higher resolution and more smoothly,' says Marko T Wramén.

Meanwhile, two AI systems designed to recognise and count the species in front of the cameras are being tested. One is being developed by KTH Royal Institute of Technology as part of a joint research project. The other is a commercial system from Tiva, a small Swedish company. Since it went live on 13 July, Tiva's system has logged almost 150,000 fish and other animals across the two cameras.

'Of course, that's not 150,000 unique individuals. Many of the fish are territorial and live close to the cameras, so they swim past again and again and again. That makes for an awful lot of goldsinny wrasse.'