Secrets of the Deep

By: Andrew Hendricksen

I have spent many times in bed thinking of what are the main parts of my life. I have long enjoyed the outdoors and I know that was definitely a significant part of me. Of course my family and friends are an important part, but I have found another part of me that has grown to form my life's goals, the oceans and the secrets that lie beneath them. 

Since November 2012, my family has spent Thanksgiving weekend in Monterey. Every year we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to see all the sea life. I remember whenever we used to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I would ask my parents if we could go to the auditorium to watch a couple of the documentaries that they played, even if I had already seen them. During my fourth visit to the aquarium, during 3rd grade, I saw a documentary about Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), which is a nonprofit organization by Elkhorn Slough that was using Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to research  the Monterey Trench, and how it came so close to land in Moss Landing right where MBARI’s facilities were located. I saw videos of the weird and cool creatures that live down as deep as the grand canyon, like the barreleye, or the yeti crab (google these animals, they are amazing), or how there is an entire world down there that survives without any sunlight. When I came out of the auditorium I had a feeling of amazement and so many questions that would engage me to further explore this new underwater world. 

For my 9th birthday, my parents got me a book about making DIY ROVs and other underwater experiments. I became really interested in the ROVs you could make from basic materials you could find at a hardware store. Soon after I was building my first ROV! I remember learning new things about ways to engineer things underwater or how to waterproof electronics. This first ROV was pretty simple to the ones that I had seen MBARI make but it was a revolutionary experience for me and it became one of my goals in life to build ROVs to explore the secrets of the deep.

Also for my 9th birthday, my parents got me a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) Seal Team experience. PADI Seal Team is an introductory program for kids 10 and under to get experience and try out SCUBA diving. Over the course of the next year, I got to play in a pool and learn how to SCUBA dive with one of my friends as my dive buddy. I learned how to set up a BCD, get naturally buoyant, and get hyped up for getting certified and being able to go diving and explore the ocean.

Being in the pool, SCUBA diving for the first time was amazing. It felt like what you would imagine what it would feel like to move in zero gravity, weightless to move wherever you want in 3 dimensions. When I first breathed out of my regulator, I had to take a couple seconds to get used to it and when I next stuck my head underwater, and I could stay there for more than a minute, it's magical. I could feel the wonder spreading through your veins as you move around in slow motion to explore.

As the month went by, I kept on learning and pushed my interest into gear. I kept on working on PADI Seal Team to completion. I started watching more documentaries at home on marine life and how these creatures have adapted to survive in the harshness of the ocean. I made ROV number 2. I went to summer camps at the Marine Science Institute (MSI) and kept on learning about the habitats, and life from microscopic plankton to gargantuan whale, from the cheery sunlight zone all the way down to the alien abyssal zone. I also started watching documentaries like Blue Planet or Big Blue Live to increase my knowledge and just get to experience the underwater world.

In early 2017, fifth grade, my dad told me about a ROV competition that was happening in May that year. It was too late to get a team together and compete but I was still enthusiastic to watch the competition. So when May arrived we drove down to Santa Cruz to watch teams of kids pilot their DIY ROVs in a pool completing challenges made out of pvc piping. Some advanced teams had cameras and manipulators and some just had pick up rods but they all were designed to complete different tasks that were based on real world problems like cleaning up trash from the ocean or restoring coral reef populations. I was filled with awe and ideas of new things to build and add to future ROVs, like adding a ballast system to make the ROV go up and down.

Earlier in my fifth grade year my family learned that MBARI had an open house. So that summer we made a day of driving down to Moss Landing and visiting MBARI. I got to see the machine shop where they would make gigantic ROVs that had CNC machines, a water jet cutter, and a big 3d printer. I got to see the ROVs they make in person and got to talk to the pilots that control them. The entire time I felt awe stuck to be at the place that had been my dream so much so that I wouldn’t speak much just look and observe all the tents with squid dissections to pier with Western-Flyer and the Racheal Carson (MBARI’s Boats) to a auditorium where you can hear employees speak about their work.

In December, a friend and I got SCUBA certified. This was an amazing experience for me because instead of the confinement of a pool and the lack of sea life. I got to go diving for the first time in the extremely cold Monterey Bay. My buddy and I did 4 check out dives that would lead to many more special diving adventures. We did our check out dives over the course of 2 days 2 dives a day. During our check out dives we tested our diving skills that we had previously practiced in the pool. We had to show that we could swim to the surface, from 20 feet down in one breath while blowing bubbles without getting extremely stressed, or fixing the seeing impairment of a mask full of cold, eye-stinging salt water. On the second dive of the first day when we were swimming out to our descending point there was a huge smack of jellies (yes, the technical term for a group of jellies) that was taking up the cove where we were diving. My buddy got a bit anxious so we turned back and did 3 dives the next dive day. On the fourth dive we got to plan our own dive and explore the kelp forests of Monterey Bay. We saw moon jellies, a gumboot chiton, and a lot of sea urchins

After my first experience at the ROV competition, I tried getting a team or company together to build a ROV and compete in the competition but no one that I talked to really seemed to be that interested. 

So after 2 years of asking friends to join me in my endeavor, I finally got 2 friends that I had only just made in middle school to join my company. The competition likes to think of each team as a company that the competition is hiring to complete the pvc challenges, so that means you have to have technology, engineering and marking displays to show why your ROV is the best for the job. My friends didn’t know or have as much knowledge or experience as me when it came to ROVs and the things below the surface, so I had to become a leader and guide my company through planning and building. 

We started out in January of 2020, designing and brainstorming ideas of how we could complete tasks like collecting floating ping pong balls or how to attach a velcro piece to another underwater. After we had a design for our ROV we started shopping for parts to build the frame, motors, control box, camera, and pickup arm. 

We were making ok progress but we were lagging behind a little so that the days before the competition may be rushed. We had just built the frame for our ROV when COVID-19 came to the United States; the competition was canceled, and we had to end our project and move on.

Sadly, my friends moved on to high school and I have to continue the ROV on my own. However I will keep trying to compete in the competition and building ROVs. And I will keep exploring and adventuring mysteries of the underwater world.