A local environmental advocate is promoting ocean exploration with the introduction of “Project Deepwater.”
Owner of Fish and Fins, Veta Wade, is leading the project, using Maka Niu—an affordable, open-source deep-sea camera to add underwater images to the world’s ocean dataset.
According to Wade, “Project Deepwater” is Montserrat’s answer to the call for more inclusive, data-driven ocean conservation.
She says that for Montserrat, the barriers to participation in marine research have been daunting, and historically, local perspectives were left out.
Wade adds that by co-designing and testing Maka Niu they are proactively changing that equation.
Montserrat’s waters have been explored before by major oceanographic expeditions, such as those led by EV Nautilus, but the Deepwater project is the first to be powered by local efforts.
While earlier expeditions mapped Montserrat’s ocean’s shape, this project brings real-time biodiversity monitoring and local stewardship to the heart of the process.
Wade says this marks an historic shift from being subjects of external research, to leaders and narrators of Montserrat’s own ocean story.