Climate Change

An underwater drone to monitor the health of the sea

20 March 2019 | Written by La redazione

Nell’Adriatico presto nuoterà anche il nuovo dispositivo, frutto del progetto Sushi Drop

  The project started in recent weeks in Fano.  The European Commission has funded it with over 1.7 million euros under the Interreg Italy-Croatia Program. Sushi Drop is coordinated by Luca De Marchi, a researcher at the University of Bologna, who has developed a drone capable of travelling between currents and bottoms, taking photographs, performing sonar scans and collecting valuable data on the chemical-physical parameters of the seas. "This tool - explains Luca De Marchi - will allow us to monitor in particular the ecosystems of the Central-Northern Adriatic Sea, which are extremely interesting due to their very high biodiversity so that they can be considered a real nursery for numerous species". The online platform. The data and information collected between the Adriatic seabeds will not be "exclusive" of the project researchers but will be shared online on an open digital platform. "In this way - continues De Marchi - environmental associations, companies in the fishing sector and the communities of all the interested territories will be able to use the data collected to implement new forms of protection of the seas and optimize fishing activities in order to increase environmental sustainability ". The Laboratory of Marine Biology and Fisheries. The University of Bologna researchers will work in Fano, in the BiGea Marine Biology and Fishing Laboratory. The laboratory, founded in 1939 under the rectorate of the famous naturalist Alessandro Ghigi, has the aim of implementing above all the studies of biology applied to fish.