Learning As We Go

Earlier this summer, we were thrilled to install a state-of-the-art, high-definition camera in the Academy’s Shark Lagoon. Like many of you, the Academy’s staff has been mesmerized by the sharks and rays gliding through the cool, blue water. We wanted to reveal these beautiful animals in crystalline detail–and make them available to anyone with an Internet connection at any time of day. But mixing technology with exhibits that mimic conditions in wild habitats is a challenging and educational proposition.

Of course, there is no manual to guide us on how to make a Shark Lagoon Cam work, so the ingenuity of a multidisciplinary team of aquarium biologists, building operations staff and electricians has been crucial. Our IT specialists and developers have had to improvise new ways to configure and encode software. They’ve identified hidden wall panels and routed cables in the deep recesses of the adjacent Planetarium. Much of the equipment was custom-built in the machine shop located in the Academy’s basement.

The most challenging aspect of providing a live feed from a within a shark lagoon is not the sharks but the water–corrosive saltwater. Nearly any camera or smartphone today can record fabulous HD video. The question is, how do you protect the sensitive mechanisms and electronics of these devices from the sharks’ and rays’ natural habitat, while still providing the highest quality image?

The answer is to construct a case large enough to house the camera yet small enough to not detract from the lagoon’s real stars–the sharks and rays. Our first set-up employed a highly advanced camera with lots of pan and tilt capability, but the housing it required was too large and not as tough as we needed it to be. The latest set-up being tested will use a smaller, simpler camera, which will be housed within a rugged, transparent PVC shell.

In addition to the corrosive nature of saltwater, there’s also humidity and a temperature differential to worry about. If you’ve ever been snorkeling and had your mask fog up, you know what that can mean. Although the lagoon is heated to a temperature that feels tropical for our 18 resident species, it’s still cool enough to create condensation inside a camera housing heated by the electronics inside. And who wants to see fog in high definition?

So we continue to trouble-shoot, build, and test new solutions–for this shark lagoon webcam as well as for those in our African Penguin colony and the Farallon Islands, each of which poses a unique set of challenges and a wide range of learning opportunities. We will apply what we learn not only to improving our current feeds but also to webcam installations in the Philippine Coral Reef exhibit and other exhibits in the future.

So please stay tuned to this space for further developments. We are committed to using today’s digital tools to give you a front row seat to this small slice of the natural world. Feel free to drop us a line at if you want to know more. Thanks for watching.

–The Webcam Team