Underwater drones to help artificial reefs off Cyprus bring back sea life

The advantage of autonomous underwater vehicles lies in their ability to stay underwater for a time, providing continuous data while ‘protecting’ the reefs by alerting scientists to any disturbance in protected waters.

A first-of-its-kind project will use a swarm of small, independent submersibles to monitor, protect and provide data on offshore artificial reefs whose purpose is to attract new marine life in otherwise barren sections of sea, officials said Monday.