It took years to create the claw, says Robert Wood. He’s an engineer at Harvard University. The idea came from one of Wood’s students, an engineer named Zhi Ern Teoh. He used paper to fold a small model of the claw. When Wood and his colleagues saw the model, they realized they could make a bigger version of it to capture sea animals. So they got to work!
The engineers first built a test version of the claw. They tried it out at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. First they tried to catch rubber ducks and vegetables to make sure the device worked underwater. Then they tested it on jellyfish. But they realized the animals got pinched when the claw closed around them. So they added soft rubber edges to the arms of the device to protect the animals from getting hurt.
Finally, the researchers attached the claw to a submarine. The sub dove off the coast of California. The device was able to capture and release several jellyfish and squid in waters as deep as 2,300 feet.
Next, Gruber and his team want to add cameras and sensors. That way they can catch creatures and study them inside the container. Then they can release the animals unharmed. The finished device will be especially helpful for studying animals in the deep sea, says Gruber. It’s one of the least studied areas on Earth.
“We know so little about the deep sea,” says Gruber. “Right now, we barely have the tools to look at it.”