Still from ROV video

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

Ok, let's work this problem backwards then. Here are some images of 'coral' circled in red from the 2012 HD footage. Now, since the 2012 HD was published I have been trawling around the internet and, sending images to marine biologists, aquarium keepers etc... but have not yet seen or found anything that resembles this type of 'coral'. Of the 3 replies I have recieved regarding the images, one suggested there was a trash tip/recycling centre nearby and the other two that the 'coral' was not of uniform shapes or size but, confirmed the colour was consistent (but didn't mention consistent with what :-\)
Yes, I have found coral this colour but, no, I can't find any coral that doesn't have a consistent shape, yet.

[Doug Giese]

Ok, let's work this problem backwards then. Here are some images of 'coral' circled in red from the 2012 HD footage.

Jeff,

You're probably also dealing with a color balance issue. See this simple explanation with examples. Attached is your purplea.jpg photo with a lot of red and a little yellow added. Perhaps your coral is more red than purple.

Edit: Of course, as Ric mentioned here you ideally need a reference object. I have a photo reference card for shooting in unknown light conditions. Photoshop Elements has a simple little tool where you click on something you believe to be pure white/gray and it corrects the entire image. Knowing the depth would also allow you to use the known absorption curves and come close.

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

The best "fix" I could think of Doug was to get the fish to their natural colour and then "assume" the surroundings would then be their natural colour as well using an image edit. :'(

[Tom Swearengen]

Slightly off topic, but maybe relevent: on the pic below of the 2012 video, shows the ROV, with a manipulator arm. I'm not sure off hand who posted this, but they felt it may have been part of a cowling. So---the ROV had some capabilities for recovery, but noting was recovered?
Tom

[Tom Swearengen]

and this one. I see the 13:38 time stamp but cant make out the rest. I think Richie may have posted this.
Can we find this shot in the video that Tim is looking at? Seems there may be some interesting stuff.
Tom

[Ric Gillespie]

Slightly off topic, but maybe relevent: on the pic below of the 2012 video, shows the ROV, with a manipulator arm. I'm not sure off hand who posted this, but they felt it may have been part of a cowling. So---the ROV had some capabilities for recovery, but noting was recovered?
Tom

We used the manipulator arm mostly to untangle the tether when it got hung up.  On a few occasions we used it to investigate suspicious-looking objects.  We never saw anything worth recovering.

[Ric Gillespie]

Thank you to everyone who is helping to maintain thread discipline.

[Tom Swearengen]

Thanks Ric----that clears that up.
Tom

[Doug Giese]

The best "fix" I could think of Doug was to get the fish to their natural colour...

Sounds good if you know the right fish color. Years ago I heard a story about the early days of color TV. At least one lab used a bowl of fruit as the reference image. Worked great until some joker painted a select few pieces of fruit random colors.

If there is a manipulator arm on the next ROV it would be nice to attach or paint a small white reference card on the arm in an unobtrusive place (if there is one).

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

The best "fix" I could think of Doug was to get the fish to their natural colour...

Sounds good if you know the right fish color. Years ago I heard a story about the early days of color TV. At least one lab used a bowl of fruit as the reference image. Worked great until some joker painted a select few pieces of fruit random colors.
If there is a manipulator arm on the next ROV it would be nice to attach or paint a small white reference card on the arm in an unobtrusive place (if there is one).

I'm no expert on tropical fish of the Pacific ocean Doug but, we live a couple of miles fom a bunch of people who are, Porton Aquatic centre. So it was simply a matter of taking a laptop down with the HD ROV footage and asking them to identify the fish in the clip. They had no trouble and, had a few of them in tanks at the centre anyway. Nice bunch of people.
That said, it's obviously not an exact science matching fish colour to the colour of the surroundings as you pointed out quite clearly with your post but, it's a start.

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

Doug, after trying to convince them that I wasn't interested in starting a marine aquarium myself they came up with a suggestion for the apparent 'purple/red' stuff scattered about in the HD footage...Coralline algae, which comes in various colours which, depending on whatever it is that it is attached to or growing on can be red, purple, green, blue etc...whatever it grows on or, it is attached to influences the colour of the Coralline algae along with the amount of light available.
I'll look into this further as it's another avenue to explore.

[JNev]

Remember where this string started?  It was fascinating -

Has anyone got any ideas as to what this is?
Another image is further down in this post

Below is an excellent version of this 'object' - the 'gear and squiggly'.  It was so good that it led me to look very closely at what suggests 'gear' in the image.  I also thought about what Ric cautioned us about in his reply #214 on Jan. 14, 2012 in this string - that TIGHAR had already noticed this feature and the 'squiggly' stuff appeared to be organic. 

I personally think the black squiggly thing is natural organic material and only a few inches long.  I don't see a strut.  I see some curious straight edges that may indicate a man-made object - but whatever it is, if anything, is quite small.

Since then he reported learning that it seems to resemble a shipboard gasket material, so a nautical source may have put it here.

But the gear 'shape' remained interesting - but tempered also because Ric also noted that the 'object' was likely 'inches', not 'feet' in scale - so it was not likely to be a landing gear.

Here is the 'clear' shot with the 'gear' circled in one still, and another of it with my own outlines of red (for apparent rocks) and yellow (for some general shadow outline highlighting).

I have to admit it is humbling.  When I first 'saw' the 'gear' I was electrified and as you will recall our initial string of excitement over this ran for many pages.  I now 'see' it is 'rocks' in a natural but odd looking arrangement, and trust Ric's first-hand knowledge of the 'squiggly'.  I guess it might still be interesting to know what Glickman might think of it.

[richie conroy]

Hi Tom

That image is from start of video, Here is a unedited version and a inverted image

What ever is under the sand/dust is well covered.

Av also attached an image of the squiggle thing, To me it appears to be wrapped round some kind of tube or cylinder

Thanks Richie

[Tom Swearengen]

Yeah. See that is what intrigues me about this squiggley stuff. I doesnt appear anywhere else, except near the 2 'cylinder looking things'. ( I'd say landing gear struts, but I dont want to speculate since they arent there anyway)

[Jeff Victor Hayden]

There's aircraft wreckage and, there's aircraft wreckage. What I didn't want to see in the extended 2010 ROV footage was this aperture in the exact position in front of the 'cockpit' windscreen.