A demonstration experiment was conducted in Ago Bay, Shima City, Mie Prefecture, to eliminate sea urchins, which have become a problem because they eat up sea urchins that feed on abalone, which is a specialty of Mie Prefecture, using an underwater drone.

Students from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, shipbuilding companies, universities, and prefectural fisheries high schools in Shima City are participating in this demonstration experiment.



On the 15th, a person concerned boarded a high school training ship and put an underwater drone with a total length of about 80 cm into the sea of ​​Ago Bay.

The underwater drone is equipped with a camera that can be remotely controlled while watching the state of the sea on the monitor on board, and it is called "Gangaze" that eats up the seaweed that feeds the abalone. I was getting rid of them one after another.



In addition, the third-year students of Fisheries High School who participated in the demonstration experiment also experienced the extermination of sea urchins by actually operating the underwater drone.



The male student who participated said, "It was difficult to operate because the aircraft was swept away by the flow of the tide."



Hiroyuki Noguchi of the Marine Policy Division of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said, "I want to make fisheries high school students accustomed to underwater mobility and increase the number of human resources who can operate it in the future."



In the future, we plan to improve the equipment based on the results of the experiment of the day before yesterday, and to conduct the demonstration experiment again in January next year.