June 28, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Liquid Robotics, the creator of the first wave and solar powered unmanned ocean robot, is using their technology to collect data from where lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano is entering the ocean.

The company announced earlier this week that they are deploying two of their ocean robots, called Wave Gliders, to “study the effects of the lava entering the ocean, the plume it creates and the interactions of the lava and seawater directly from the surface of the ocean.”

Kilauea began erupting in early May, forcing evacuations of the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna subdivisions. By the end of the month the lava flow reached the Pacific Ocean, creating a thick and hazardous cloud where the lava hit the water. Residents of Hawaii’s Big Island were warned about the toxic volcanic gas emissions, but now Liquid Robotics will be able to give a better idea of how the volcanic eruptions and lava flow are affecting marine life, including coral reefs and fish populations.

“The effect of this massive lava flow entering the ocean is dramatic and amazing, but at the same time somewhat mysterious,” Roger Hine, CTO and co-founder of Liquid Robotics said in a statement. “Detailed measurements of the ocean plume and the ecosystems it impacts are now possible and safe to obtain with unmanned systems like our Wave Gliders. This is an opportunity of a lifetime to deploy our ocean robots to help advance science.”

The Wave Gliders will get approximately 300+m from the lava flow plume and collect “rare subsurface, surface and atmospheric data.” The ocean robots will be able to collect data on water temperatures, oxygen levels, pH levels, salinity, turbidity, conductivity and underwater acoustics. Researchers from the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory will be looking at the data.

“The plume of hot, sediment-laden water generated by lava flowing into the ocean spreads out, impacting surrounding ecosystems and permitted boaters operating in the area,” the University of Hawai’i at Hilo’s Dr. Steve Colbert explained. “We don’t know how far and deep that plume extends, or how it changes the oceanographic conditions or changes in the flow of lava. The Wave Gliders provide us the opportunity to answer these important questions.”

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.