It crucially won’t need much human intervention. Mesobot uses stereo cameras to identify target animals and can follow them around on its own. A 12-megapixel camera can take both pictures and 4K video, while a particulate sampler could collect DNA traces floating in the water. It could also study water traits like salt levels and dissolved oxygen.

Woods Hole expects Mesobot to be ready for testing in early 2019 (that is, very shortly), and could embark on its first real dive in the summer. When it does, it could provide a new level of insight into sea life hundreds or thousands of feet below the waves. Human divers can be extremely stealthy, but they can’t stay for very long — Mesobot could hang around long enough to discover behavior that people would otherwise miss.