A recent NOAA survey of the Caribbean off the southern coasts of the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. John and St. Thomas and off eastern Puerto Rico discovered six previously unknown shipwrecks.

6 Uncharted Shipwrecks Discovered in Caribbean

The three-week mission deployed robotic subs and seafloor imagers to examine coral reefs and explore areas where fish spawn so that scientists can create detailed maps of the bottom of the sea and learn more about the ecosystem and how to protect it. The mission ended last month and the collected data have revealed plenty of interesting seafloor habitats and fish, but it is the collection of shipwrecks that has everyone buzzing.

“What we saw was truly exciting. Finding one shipwreck would have been great, but locating six was a total surprise,” said study team leader Tim Battista, an oceanographer with the Center for Coastal Monitoring. “The wrecks seemed to serve as a refuge for fish and other marine life. In several instances we saw schools of fish, sharks and turtles.”

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for the passing the article along.