It's a still from a video of a spotted eagle ray in Heron Island harbour.

Behind the controls of the vehicle and camera was Dr Vincent Raoult, a University of Newcastle marine ecologist.

"People most often compare it to an underwater drone," Dr Raoult said.

"It has a control chip on it, straight off a drone. It basically flies underwater, just a fair bit slower than a drone."

Dr Raoult said the underwater vehicle had advantages over diving and snorkelling.

"It can be underwater for a long time. It can go up and down in the water column quickly. They can go a lot deeper than divers," he said.

"You don't want to be diving in Sydney Harbour and off Newcastle in the middle of winter when the water is 14 degrees."

The university is using the underwater vehicle for marine research.

"It gives us access to environments we usually would not have access to," he said.

"We've done a lot of work off Tasmania and Flinders Island in pretty deep and very remote locations, to map habitats and observe the behaviours of sharks and rays in the wild.

"More recently we've used it in Vanuatu to look at the change in fish communities when you're going from the surface to about 60 metres deep."

Traditionally, remove underwater vehicles are pricey. We're talking upwards of $100,000. Jasmine cost $10,000.

"It has some pretty impressive capabilities," Dr Raoult said.

"It takes video, accurate depth, temperature and location data - underwater GPS."

The vehicle has a grab function, so samples can be taken if needed. It can help examine water chemistry and get water samples at depth.

Like drones, people considered them as toys initially, but then realised there was "a swathe of benefits to using them for research for a variety of purposes".

"It provides perspectives on things that we didn't have before. It opens up a lot of doors in observing new behaviours of animals.

"This gives us a lot more control and expands our possible research envelope."

The university now has a second underwater vehicle.

"Jasmine is the main one. We've had her for about two years," he said.

"We recently got another one last year that I'm in the process of building. We're just waiting on some custom-made parts for it."

At this stage, Jasmine is mainly used as a research tool, but there are plans to use it for teaching.

Glen Fredericks, formerly of the Empire Coffee Co at Honeysuckle, might not be in the cafe business anymore but he still loves coffee and cosplay [dressing up as characters].

It's been six months since the Star Wars-influenced cafe closed its doors at Honeysuckle.

Glen has no intention of owning or operating another cafe with so many businesses struggling.

"I do have a lot of ideas and a heart for small business, so organising events to encourage people to make the trek into town is a passion project of mine," he said.

"Ultimately I'd love to see the iconic Tower Cinemas reopen and I believe that cosplay and street performances can breathe new life into Hunter Street mall and surrounding precincts."

For Father's Day, he organised a group of superheroes to make an appearance at Ka-fey Cafe in Hunter Street mall.

Ironman, Thor, Scarlet Witch and Batman were there, among others.

Plenty of people were keen for photos with the costumed characters.