This week, Techshot completed and shipped its first prototype High Pressure Specimen Chamber (HPSC) for ocean research. The device is designed to retrieve animals from as deep as 2,000 meters (6,280 feet) under the sea and safely bring them to the surface, while maintaining conditions that sustain life and maximize research laboratory data gathering.

The physiology of deep sea fish and invertebrates is poorly known due to the difficult challenges of bringing up live specimens from high-pressure environments. Animals that thrive far below the surface cannot survive in the relatively low-pressures available in typical research laboratory enclosures.

This first prototype is being delivered to the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory in Honolulu for evaluation. Established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Hawaii, its mission is to study deep water marine processes in the Pacific Ocean.