Page 36: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2021)

OCEAN OBSERVATION NOUS he establishment of Maritime Protective Areas (MPA) monitoring and surveillance of marine protected parks, div- and marine archaeological sites has been an objec- ing parks, sea farms; make real-time scienti? c observations tive of the Ministries of Culture and Environment in throughout the day and over long periods of time and monitor-

Greece for a long time. One of the main problems ing of biodiversity and climate change.

that delayed the implementation speci? cally of the At the beginning of 2019, the design of the Underwater Vi-

T “underwater museums”, was the way they were pro- sual Observation System “NOUS” (uNdersea visiOn sUrveil- tected. Usually in ancient shipwrecks, only their cargo is pre- lance System, which in Greek means “mind”) was launched, served, which is mostly amphorae, that can be easily stolen. which was successfully completed a year later.

Therefore it was both a necessity and a requirement for a “NOUS” allows continuous (24/7) monitoring and protec- system which should be self-powered (since in most of the tion of an underwater site using machine learning and image places where wrecks are located there is no electrical power and sound processing algorithms. supply), able to connect to the internet with all available tech- Brie? y, it is a system consisting of an underwater array of nologies for communication and remote control, have sensors self-cleaning cameras and microphones, which are either con- which can monitor the site of interest continuously and alert nected by optical ? ber and electrical power conductor to the appropriately in case of violations, tampering or other events. nearest shore, or to a ? oating platform on the sea surface. On

Such a system could have many useful applications, such as the shore or on the platform there is a photovoltaic panel pow- 36 November/December 2021

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