Boaters may have noticed what looks a little like a pontoon boat trawling around the Pamlico Sound – with nobody visibly piloting the vessel and not a soul onboard.
It’s no modern-day ghost ship, but a research vessel from the NC State University Department of Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
A MEAS professor and two master’s students are mapping planted cultch oyster reefs using an uncrewed surface vehicle, or USV, with onboard sonar.
Officials say the data collected will help scientists better understand how these oyster reefs are changing from year to year.
