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Seafaring drones on Lake Superior will soon allow a team of Cornell University scientists to examine fresh details about the abundance and distribution of forage fish—species, such as zooplankton and shrimp, which provide nourishment for sportier marine species higher on the food chain.

Two Saildrone Explorers—23-foot-long autonomous wind-and-solar-powered research vehicles that look like surfboards outfitted with sonar and other sensors—launched Aug. 9 from Ashland, Wisconsin. They will be part of an acoustic survey of the fish and biomass of western Lake Superior. It runs until Sept. 3.

Forage fish of Lake Superior include several species of cisco, whitefish and rainbow smelt that comprise the diet of a variety of salmon and lake trout. The saildrones will be directly compared with traditional acoustic monitoring by ships.

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