From October to December parts of the Great Barrier Reef are getting busy, as the coral species are release bundles of eggs in a massive spawning event. Researchers took advantage of the event along with an underwater killer drone to combat global warming and pollution’s devastating effects on reef.
The LarvalBot drone is a collaboration between Queensland University of Technology and Southern Cross University. The drone was once used to hunt down a voracious starfish that was annihilating the coral, but has been modified to carry coral larvae to areas of the reef that need help recolonizing.
Loaded with over 100,000 coral babies, the LarvalBot is attempting to rebuild essential parts of the oceanic ecology. “It’s like spreading fertilizer on your lawn,” Matthew Dunbabin, professor at QUT and developer of the drone technology, explains to CNET. “As [the drone] glides along we target where the larvae need to be distributed so new colonies can form and new coral communities can develop.”
This drone technically is being used as part of a larger effort to repair and protect The Great Barrier Reef which is a World Heritage Site.
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