Although they cover over 70% of our planet, only 0.6% of the world oceans are protected. It is estimated that we only know about 1 in 10 species in the ocean, which is unsurprising given that 90% of the ocean is more than half a mile deep and still remains largely unexplored. How might technology help us discover, understand and protect the vulnerable ecosystems below the waterline?
Marine Conservation is a fast-growing group in the WILDLABS community, capturing a wide variety of tech expertise within its member base, including those working with bioacoustic gear and hydrophones, AUVs and drones, sensors, machine learning, and more. By bringing together WILDLABS members from so many areas of conservation tech, the Marine Conservation group is the perfect place to collaborate on big, complex issues like marine biodiversity monitoring, coral reef health, plastic pollution, and sustainability.
The Marine Conservation group forum is also your place to chat about and solve the challenges unique to using conservation technology in marine environments. Whether you're struggling with deep-sea connectivity or salt water impacting gear longevity, or looking for remote solutions for long-term reef monitoring or biologging data collection, this group wants to help you explore the possibilities!
Check out some of the key marine conservation tech resources, conversations, and virtual events from across the WILDLABS platform:
Tutorials and Talks to Watch on Demand:
- Virtual Meetups: Developing cost-effective, open-source marine megafauna tracking, Jake Levenson
- Tech Tutors: How do I use open source remote sensing data to monitor fishing?, Max Schofield
- Virtual Meetups: eDNA for Aquatic Biodiversity, Alice Valentini
Case Studies, Tools, Research, and News:
- Southern Right Whales & Genome and Satellite Technology, Emma Carroll | eDNA & genomics, satellite data, biodiversity monitoring, climate change
- Building Experts Into AI, Whale Seeker | Machine learning, marine conservation, AI ethics
- Using AIS Data to Investigate the World’s Fishing Ports, Max Schofield | Remote sensing, data visualisation, fishing monitoring
- Small-scale fisheries and tech resources, Dan Steadman | Fishery monitoring, webinars, best practices
- Press Release: BAS Giant Iceberg Mission, British Antarctic Survey | Climate change, AUVs, remote sensing
- Case Study: Thermal imaging, drones, and loggerhead sea turtles, Megan Ossmann | FLIR, Duo Pro R camera, drones
- eDNA sampling to detect invasive snails in shipping ballast water, Gavin Shelton | Invasive species, eDNA, shipping
- Sustainable Fishing Challenges: Fish Catch Monitoring, Dan Steadman | Biologging, sensors, fishing monitoring
Conversations and Questions:
- Satellite tags for marine turtle recommendations | Alasdair Davies
- Calling all hydrophone users! | Team Open Acoustic Devices
- How difficult is it to build a buoy and constrain it in place? | Lindy Knowles
- Methods to detect Derelict Fishing Gear | Nandini Mehrotra
- Drone Mapping for Algal Blooms? | Harold Tay
- Minimising habitat impact of trawling gear | Dan Steadman
- Estimating carbon from 3d models of mangroves | Mark Brown
- Can we detect gillnets in turbid water? | Aurélie Shapiro
- New low cost DIY temperature loggers for reef monitoring | Harold Tay
- Machine learning to detect fish bomb blasts | Jamie Macaulay
Header Image: Emma Vogel
- @NevilleCLS
- | He/Him
CLS (Collecte Localisation Satellites)
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- 1 Discussions
- 14 Groups
- @volkankorkmaz
- | volkan
I have been working at the Underwater Association , to protect nature since 94 . Since 1992, I have been a PADI diving instructor
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
FileMaker Database developer with a passion for nature.
- 1 Resources
- 65 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @tmcgrath
- | He / Him
Geographer, Program Manager, Engineering Manager
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 8 Groups
- @HannahJasinski
- | She/Her
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
- @Mumonkan
- | he / him
Wild Me
Software Engineer for Wildlife Conservation
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- @evan21
- | She/Her
University of St Andrews
Final Year Biology & Geography Undergraduate at the University of St Andrews
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @tobiaspetri
- | him/his
data scientist/algorithmic dev - caught fire for movement ecology
- 5 Resources
- 14 Discussions
- 8 Groups
- @rachelpool
- | She/Her
Early-career researcher interested in marine conservation
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
Technologist, birder, photographer and mountain guide.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 18 Groups
- @alexrood
- | she/her
I'm the WILDLABS Communications and Community Management Associate Specialist at WWF-US
- 16 Resources
- 11 Discussions
- 8 Groups
- @carlybatist
- | she/her
Science Outreach Lead-Rainforest Connection (RFCx) & ArbimonEcoacoustics, biodiversity monitoring, primates, lemurs
- 68 Resources
- 271 Discussions
- 18 Groups
Conservation partnership launches new award to advance biodiversity conservation from space
5 December 2022
First known baited underwater video match of an individual white shark, based on facial scars and other unique features White shark undertakes 1,100-mile (1800-km) transboundary swim from South Africa to Mozambique
25 October 2022
Careers
This position (at California State University, Long Beach) provides data management & analysis support to Shark Lab research operations including shark tagging, active tracking, receiver data, AUV & UAV data...
24 October 2022
Oregon State University researchers have developed a new satellite tag that allows them to better track whales’ behavior, including previously unobservable feeding events during dives.
4 October 2022
The device could help scientists explore unknown regions of the ocean, track pollution, or monitor the effects of climate change.
26 September 2022
Explore BOEM data, build analytic tools, and recommend solutions for sea turtle relocation trawling approaches to reduce incidental risk. Prize: $40,000
21 September 2022
Tenure track position in Marine Biology
12 September 2022
Mystic Aquarium is seeking a Postdoctoral Investigator (PDI) to address noise impacts on aquatic species, particularly beluga whales, seals and turtles. This project will develop & carry out research to address...
1 September 2022
Seeking interested individuals with qualifications and educational background and experience in marine species biology/ecology (marine mammals, sea turtles, fish, seabirds, etc.); with skills in applied scientific study...
31 August 2022
We are looking for an international consultant to develop and implement the SMART System for São Tomé and Principe terrestrial and marine ecosystems in Portuguese
31 August 2022
Marine Acoustics, Inc. (MAI) is seeking an Acoustic Modeler and Analyst to assist us in the analysis of underwater acoustic system performance and the effect underwater acoustic transmissions have on the marine...
30 August 2022
Careers
SafetyNet Technologies is seeking a new Commercial Director to help them scale up their conservation tech hardware product development.
12 August 2022
April 2024
event
May 2024
October 2024
March 2024
event
February 2024
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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We could always use more contributors in open source projects. In most open source companies Red Hat, Anaconda, Red Hat and Mozilla, people often ended up getting hired largely... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Early Career, Marine Conservation | 3 days 4 hours ago | |
Hello everyone, I'm interested in gathering insights on how the behavior of different species impacts the development and efficacy of... |
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Biologging, Acoustics, Camera Traps, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Marine Conservation | 5 days 13 hours ago | |
Hi all, I am searching for marine species projects that monitor orientation/IMU and/or acceleration data... |
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Biologging, Marine Conservation | 2 weeks 1 day ago | |
Hi Scott, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts here! It would be great to learn more about this, would you be interested in finding a time to chat? Thanks! |
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Marine Conservation, Sustainable Fishing Challenges, Wildlife Crime | 3 weeks 6 days ago | |
Ah yes. I didn’t notice that. Indeed it’s “near infrared”, 850nm lighting. |
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Camera Traps, Marine Conservation | 1 month ago | |
Am working on similar AI challenge at the moment. Hoping to translate my workflow to wolves in future if needed. We all are little overstretched but it there is no pressing... |
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Camera Traps, AI for Conservation, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Data management and processing tools, Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools, Remote Sensing & GIS | 2 months ago | |
I dont have anything written up but I can tell what parts we used and how we tested.Its pretty straightforward, we used this M10 Enclosure Vent from Blue Robotics: Along with... |
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Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Acoustics, Camera Traps, Climate Change, East Africa Community, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions, Protected Area Management Tools | 2 months 1 week ago | |
Thanks Aude, very useful. Will reach out to them! |
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Early Career, Acoustics, eDNA & Genomics, Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
Thank you for sharing! Super interesting, as we don't see many underwater stereo cameras! We also use Blue Robotics components in our projects and have found them reliable and... |
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Sensors, Camera Traps, Marine Conservation | 2 months 4 weeks ago | |
If you are considering an external microphone and a towed system, then you would also be in a position to consider a raspberry pi with an external microphone with sbts-aru.... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Marine Conservation, Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 3 months 1 week ago | |
Hi Eva, Me and my colleagues run a small NGO based on Yogyakarta in Indonesia, although our projects are spread around the country. One of our active project is working with... |
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Community Base, Biologging, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Marine Conservation, Remote Sensing & GIS | 3 months 1 week ago | |
Dear community,For my MEng thesis at Imperial College London, I am building deep learning model that automatically postprocesses shark... |
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Marine Conservation | 3 months 3 weeks ago |
AI for Conservation!
4 March 2024 8:51pm
22 March 2024 5:57pm
Thank you for the tip! I'll definitely consider contributing to open source projects and taking part in challenges :)
25 March 2024 5:22am
We could always use more contributors in open source projects. In most open source companies Red Hat, Anaconda, Red Hat and Mozilla, people often ended up getting hired largely due to their contributions on open source projects. These contributions were both technical such as writing computer code and non-technical such as writing documentation and translating tools in their local language.
How does behavior influence the use of technology for animal detection ?
22 March 2024 7:49pm
Consultants - Mapping EU’s Marine Protected Areas and analyzing their ecological coherence
19 March 2024 9:39am
Using citizen science image analysis to measure seabird phenology
13 March 2024 9:32pm
Our new paper uses data from the citizen science project, Seabird Watch (hosted on the Zooniverse platform; seabirdwatch.org), to measure seabird phenology. Volunteers marked birds in time-lapse images to investigate arrival and departure to/from the breeding grounds.
Senior Post-doctoral Researcher/Senior Research Associate Opportunity: Movement ecology of Greenland halibut
13 March 2024 2:00pm
IMU and orientation data for marine species
13 March 2024 9:12am
Project71: A Venture Competition for Ocean Regeneration
4 March 2024 10:49am
Species ID Needs?
19 February 2024 7:55pm
23 February 2024 2:10pm
Hello Nadia,
A forensic genetic challenge exists when DNA is destroyed by processes used in manufacturing of derivative animal products, preventing law enforcement in identification of protected species. Alternative methods such as lipid profiles or isotope analysis unique to certain species may be possible but require voucher specimens that may or may not be available and methods that have not been tested or peer reviewed. Examples below:
- derivative products made from endangered shark squalene (eg. Liver oil capsules).
- derivative products made from lion bone and tiger bone (eg. lion bone cake and tiger wine).
This is a law enforcement issue and would like to discuss possible solutions.
1 March 2024 2:27am
Hi Scott, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts here! It would be great to learn more about this, would you be interested in finding a time to chat? Thanks!
Timelapse Infrared Camera Suggestions
14 February 2024 1:54am
24 February 2024 6:18am
I doubt there is an off the shelf solution. Likely you will have to build one. Again I think the FLIR leptons could be of value here.
@krasi_georgiev you have worked with Leptons before ? Is this something you are able to advise on ?
25 February 2024 1:11pm
Ah yes. I didn’t notice that. Indeed it’s “near infrared”, 850nm lighting.
Senior Software Engineer, Skylight
21 February 2024 3:44pm
Workshop: Advances in eDNA for monitoring and ecological studies of marine mammals
14 February 2024 7:25pm
Contrasting strengths of eDNA and electrofishing compared to historic records for assessing fish community diversity and composition
14 February 2024 7:24pm
This study investigated the accuracy of eDNA and electrofishing as alternative methods for assessing diversity.
eDNA Collaborative: Small Grants Application for Marine eDNA Research
12 February 2024 7:45pm
The eDNA Collaborative is partnering with Experiment to offer $80,000 in small grants to support projects that demonstrate novel approaches in marine eDNA collection, analysis, or application.
Submission Deadline: March 30, 2024
Bio-Logging Science Symposium
9 February 2024 3:59pm
Southern African Wildlife Management Association Conference 2024
6 February 2024 12:20pm
Project Planning for Wildlife Conservation
30 January 2024 3:13pm
Jupyter Notebook: Aquatic Computer Vision
25 January 2024 5:50am
26 January 2024 1:46pm
This is quite interesting. Would love to see if we could improve this code using custom models and alternative ways of processing the video stream.
27 January 2024 4:07am
This definitely seems like the community to do it. I was looking at the thread about wolf detection and it seems like people here are no strangers to image classification. A little overwhelming to be quite honest 😂
While it would be incredible to have a powerful model that was capable of auto-classifying everything right away and storing all the detected creatures & correlated sensor data straight into a database - I wonder if in remote cases where power (and therefore cpu bandwidth), data storage, and network connectivity is at a premium if it would be more valuable to just be able to highlight moments of interest for lab analysis later? OR if you do you have cellular connection, you could download just those moments of interest and not hours and hours of footage?
27 January 2024 6:11am
Am working on similar AI challenge at the moment. Hoping to translate my workflow to wolves in future if needed.
We all are little overstretched but it there is no pressing deadlines, it should be possible to explore building efficient model for object detection and looking at suitable hardware for running these model on the edge.
Recycled & DIY Remote Monitoring Buoy
15 January 2024 1:14am
15 January 2024 9:17pm
Hello fellow Brett. Cool project. You mentioned a waterseal testing process. Is there documentation on that?
18 January 2024 10:25am
I dont have anything written up but I can tell what parts we used and how we tested.
Its pretty straightforward, we used this M10 Enclosure Vent from Blue Robotics:
Along with this nipple adapter:
Then you can use any cheap hand held break pump to connect to your enclosure. You can pump a small vacuum in and make sure the pressure holds.
Here's a tutorial video from blue robotics:
Let me know if you have any questions or if I can help out.
Looking for a Supervisor/Research Group - ML-driven Marine Biomonitoring
3 January 2024 2:05pm
5 January 2024 11:07am
Hi Filippo,
Nice to read your message. Have you thought of contacting anyone in the Bioscience department at UCL? In our group "the People and Nature Lab", a few PhD students (Ben and Jason) are working on ML methods for coral reef monitoring. Might be interesting to reach out to them. List of People at CBER.
Best, Aude
7 January 2024 6:06pm
Thanks Aude, very useful. Will reach out to them!
Open-Source design guide for a low-cost, long-running aquatic stereo camera
13 December 2023 5:47pm
15 December 2023 4:53pm
This is awesome - thanks for sharing Stephanie!! We actually were looking around for a low-cost video camera to augment an MPA monitoring project locally and this looks like a really great option!
Cheers, Liz
28 December 2023 8:54pm
Thank you for sharing! Super interesting, as we don't see many underwater stereo cameras! We also use Blue Robotics components in our projects and have found them reliable and easy to work with.
Hydromoth for coastal & offshore surveying
16 November 2023 7:36am
18 November 2023 1:47am
Hi Sol,
I think your concern is well placed. The pros typically tow an array of hydrophones, in its simpler configuration it looks like a long fat rubber hose containing maybe a dozen transducers feeding their electrical signals to a recording unit back on the ship. All this is done to reduce noise from the ship, from waves crashing, and flow noise. The multiple transducers can also be electronically tuned to be directional so that it can be "pointed" away from a noise source (like the ship).
In your position, I would just try the simplest thing that could work, then fix the problems as they arise. It could be you may need to be dead in the water while recording. To address surface noise (slapping waves, wind), you could mount the hydromoth low down on a spar buoy, which you tow into position.
Best of luck, it sounds like an interesting project (c:
19 December 2023 2:20pm
Hydromoths are great for the price but they do not have the most streamlined housing and audio quality won't be as good as something like a SoundTrap or really any recorder with a proper hydrophone and 16-bit +DAQ system.
If you can afford it, this is an excellent SoundTrap based towed autonomous system NOAA have been using. It might work towed behind an autonomous vehicle
Alternatively, if you can have something inside the vehicle, a simple tape recorder (e.g. Tascam DR40X) and hydrophone on cable will provide excellent sound quality. You could also use something like a Raspberry Pi with audio focussed ADC hat to record but that would require a bit more programming. Even consider a standard AudioMoth and plug a proper hydrophone into the audio jack - this would still have a 12-bit ADC but would provide better sound quality than a hydromoth (hydrophones are more omnidirectional and there's no air filled causing reflections and attenuation)
20 December 2023 6:57am
If you are considering an external microphone and a towed system, then you would also be in a position to consider a raspberry pi with an external microphone with sbts-aru. Another option:
Seeking Host Organisations for Travel Scholarship Application
19 December 2023 12:54am
20 December 2023 3:07am
Hi Eva,
Me and my colleagues run a small NGO based on Yogyakarta in Indonesia, although our projects are spread around the country. One of our active project is working with the movement ecology of Sunda gharials in Berbak-Sembilang National Park. One of the other is for Malayan Giant Turtle conservation using one-plan approach, which we are planning to start in situ phase. We can't give you promise about anything, but are able to be the host organization and would love to talk the opportunity!
Cheers,
Dhanu
Update on SEE Shell App to identify illegal tortoiseshell products
14 December 2023 10:00pm
Data Viz Inspo for the Holidays
11 December 2023 8:42pm
Shark BRUV annotated data needed! ML for automatic BRUV postprocessing
4 December 2023 11:55am
Into the Underwater Savanna: BRUV Surveys In Seagrass Beds
30 November 2023 6:12pm
Wishlist for kit in a field-based Research Station or tech testing space?
27 November 2023 10:41am
28 November 2023 3:25am
Regine Weckauf over on linkedin:
'Little to do with research and tech development, but given how hard it is to attract and retain experienced staff to field based positions, I know it makes a difference how nice the space is. Just because it's the "field", shouldn't mean staff living in basic conditions, regardless of how many times we've been told to see it as a badge of honor. If you have the money, put in nice bathrooms, kitchen, living spaces, and private accommodation. Maybe even a nursery? It creates more local employment opportunities and people genuinely want to visit.'
28 November 2023 2:25pm
Love the idea for in-house gear/supplies! It can be SOO difficult to travel with batteries, electronics parts with airline regs, country policies, etc. and shipping recorders/trail cams/etc. gets VERY (prohibitively) pricey in some countries with customs and taxes. Would be great to have an in-country place to source that kind of equipment.
Housing educational resources related to that tech (in the form of people, print materials, computer tutorials) in-house would be similarly awesome. Particularly/especially in local languages.
Having in-country wet labs as well helps the eDNA/genetics folks, since sample import/export permitting can be (always seems to be?!) a nightmare, so if you can even just do PCR and/or extractions in-country that helps a ton.
In terms of overall field-station-wishlist - honestly, just the promise of continued funding and staff. Every field station I've been to or worked at is in a constant search for enough money to get through the next month/year, because the funding comes in the establish a station but then not to maintain it long-term. It's not sexy for a wishlist per se, but boy is it over-looked and much-needed.
@hikinghack from Dinalab would probably have lots of good insights on this!
29 November 2023 7:59pm
My suggestion would probably be a 3D printer and Solder Station with a stock of common components. With those two things you can solve most problems.
Tenure Track Scientists (Sensing, Robotics, Machine Learning) - AOPE, WHOI
27 November 2023 9:21am
ICOTEQ launch TAGRANGER® system of products
23 November 2023 1:25pm
22 March 2024 12:29pm
Welcome, Have you considered participating in any of the AI for Good challenges. I find it is good way to build a nice portfolio of work. Also contributing to existing open source ML projects such as megadetector or to upstream libraries such as PyTorch is good way to getting hired.