A high-tech SharkCam invented by a Cape Cod researcher offers an unprecedented window into the lives of the ocean's toothy predators, and can also extend to seals, whales, turtles and squid for a big-picture view of precious ecosystems and how to protect them. "These vehicles, these underwater robots that look like highly complex systems are just an extension of yourself to be able go where people can't go, and there's no limitation to what they can do," said Amy Kukulya, research engineer and principal investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Kukulya helped invent SharkCam, which she called "the Rolls-Royce of tags," more than ten years ago. The technology uses an intramuscular tag on a shark that constantly communicates with an autonomous underwater vehicle equipped with a handful of cameras that follows the animal and provides crucial data such as audio, video, water currents and temperature readings. Researchers have even gotten some of the robots back with huge teeth marks left behind from a curious shark.

A robot camera has been used in UK seas for the first time to monitor the behaviour of basking sharks. SharkCam was deployed off the west coast of Scotland where the sharks gather to breed after migrating from waters off west Africa. Basking sharks, an endangered species, are the world's second largest fish after whale sharks, sometimes growing to more than 10m (33ft) long. SharkCam followed three sharks off the coasts of Coll and Tiree. The robot monitored the animals from a distance and recorded behaviour that suggested they arrive in Scottish waters to breed rather than feed.