We describe a wavelet-based image compression system which has the
following advantages: low-power utilization, low RAM requirements,
embedded bit-plane compression, scalable decompression, and
region-of-interest selectivity.  These advantages are illustrated
in an application to very high compressions of underwater camera
images.  The proposed system performs at a comparable level to a
system based on the celebrated Daub 9/7 system, yet employing 256 
times less RAM and a 16-bit dynamic range (with 8-bit images) 
instead of a 32-bit dynamic range.