Drone and Drop-Camera Enables Advanced Reef Modelling

This animated video uses drone and drop-camera footage to model one of the piloted reef structures in Grenville Bay, Grenada.  The animation shows the structure two years after its installation in 2015.  The underwater structures are being tested to reduce wave energy reaching Telescope Beach and causing severe erosion at a rate of nearly 65 cm per year.  The structures were constructed using local labor, steel rebar cages and cement bricks or rocks from a nearby quarry. They are currently monitored for their durability and ability to create habitat for fish species and coral.  In the video, coral fragments that were collected from within the footprint of the structures are seen attached to the cages and have begun to grow successfully. Such structures cover 30 meters along the degraded reef crest in Grenville Bay and are designed to last 30 years.  Additional structures totaling 300 meters in length are needed to achieve the desired protection for Telescope Beach and the communities living along the coast.