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
- @SeanB
- | he/him
Cellular Tracking Technologies
Software Engineer at Cellular Tracking Technologies. I'm passionate about developing cutting-edge technology for scientific research and advancing data analysis methods for telemetry devices.
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- 1 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Wild Me
- 1 Resources
- 20 Discussions
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- 8 Groups
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- 5 Groups
Adventure Scientists is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, MT that equips scientists and researchers with high-quality data collected from the outdoors that are crucial to addressing environmental challenges around the world.
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- 16 Groups
- @DanielHugelmann
- | He / Him
Hi, I'm the co-founder of OceanLabs Seychelles. We design and build environmental and marine remote sensing devices for conservation NGOs. As an engineer and avid diver, with a love for the environment, connecting conservation and technology was the natural thing to do!
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- 1 Discussions
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- @chmod000
- | he/they
I build sensing and perceiving hardware that is designed to address issues that matter to me. That ranges from assistive technologies, to conservation ecology, and connecting individuals with place and each other.
- 0 Resources
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- 7 Groups
- @DBayley
- | He/him
Fauna & Flora & University College London (UCL)
I'm a tropical marine ecologist, specialising in coral reefs, MPAs, and blue carbon. Within conservation technology my focus has been around developing underwater imaging techniques, primarily to assist coral reef monitoring
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- 1 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @nicoboenisch
- | He / him / his
Co-Director FOS Europe, Conservation Strategist and Technical Advisor to the Miradi Software Team, Improving Conservation through Adaptive Management and Evidence-based Learning
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- 8 Groups
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
I study movement, behaviour and/or physiology using combine various sensors and tracking techniques. My focus is marine predators. However, my interest extends through the entire food web in all types of environment.
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- 7 Groups
Technology for Wildlife Foundation
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- 3 Discussions
- 5 Groups
Siren Project Executive @ African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization (AMMCO). 20+ year in technology. Polyglot. Divemaster.
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- 3 Groups
WWF is looking for consultant(s) with expertise in spatial data mapping and analysis.
19 March 2024
Hussey Labs seeks a senior post-doctoral researcher/senior research associate for movement ecology of Greenland halibut in the context of fisheries management across Baffin Bay-Davis Strait, Eastern Canadian Arctic.
13 March 2024
Whether you’re an aspiring or established entrepreneur, an early-stage startup, or a researcher, apply to the Project 71 – A Venture Competition for Ocean Regeneration. This competition is for you if you have a bold...
4 March 2024
Join the mission to help tackle IUU fishing with cutting-edge tech! The Allan Institute for AI is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to accelerate efforts to make sure those working to restore our ocean have the tools...
21 February 2024
SEE Shell is an innovative phone app that uses machine learning to identify products made from the shell of the critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle.
14 December 2023
Using baited remote underwater videos (BRUVs) to survey seagrass habitats along Kenya’s North Coast
30 November 2023
The Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOPE) at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) seek to hire 1-2 scientists at any of the Assistant/Associate/Senior Scientist levels to develop research...
27 November 2023
TagRanger® is a state-of-the-art wildlife finding, monitoring and tracking solution for research, conservation and environmental professionals. With superior configurability for logging data, reporting location and...
23 November 2023
Prospective PhD students with a background in acoustics and an interest in Arctic ecology are encouraged to email Michelle EH Fournet
16 November 2023
Engaging in seagrass conservation research along the Kenyan coast with dynamic approaches that integrate the skills I gained from the WiCT Training as part of my Master’s (by thesis) in Zoology program at Stellenbosch...
14 November 2023
We're delighted to announce that Connected Conservation Foundation and Airbus Foundation have today launched round 2 of the ‘Satellites for Biodiversity Award’.
2 October 2023
The partnership will support the Global South with the development, planning and management of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the high seas.
22 September 2023
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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 | 4 days 3 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 | 6 days 10 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 | 4 weeks 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 3 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 | 3 months 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 |
World Ocean Tech and Innovation Summit
13 September 2022 1:12pm
Catch Up with the Variety Hour: September 2022
6 September 2022 12:31pm
Postdoc: Noise Impacts on Marine Animals
1 September 2022 9:25pm
Solicitation of Interest: NAVFAC Atlantic Marine Resources
31 August 2022 7:28pm
Consultancy - Development and implementation of SMART for Sao Tome and Principe
31 August 2022 5:24pm
ONLINE COURSE: Grant Writing for Wildlife Conservation
31 August 2022 2:38pm
Acoustics Modeler & Analyst, Marine Acoustics Inc
30 August 2022 9:45am
Opportunity: Commercial Director
12 August 2022 12:57am
3yr Postdoctoral Associate: Remote Sensing and Unoccupied Aircraft Systems
10 August 2022 5:29pm
Catch Up with the WILDLABS Variety Hour: August 2022
10 August 2022 11:44am
Sydney seals: From Manly to Malabar, marine life sprawls across a city
8 August 2022 12:59pm
This came to me by way of my dad over the weekend, but it's is full of familiar names and has started popping up from other places in the conservation tech network. It's a gorgeous visual story via The Sydney Morning Herald, telling the tail of the return of fur seals in and around Sydney. It highlights PhD student Vanessa Morris' PhD research and the citizen science program Vanessa Pirotta created called Wild Sydney Harbour (www.wildsydneyharbour.com).
Ocean Tracking Network Symposium 2022
5 August 2022 2:47pm
HydroMoth GroupGets campaign
28 June 2022 11:07am
20 July 2022 5:57pm
@Andrew_Hill Out of curiosity, since this campaign reached its goal & is ending soon, is it possible to turn the remaining Hydromoth units that didn't sell into Audiomoths for a limited GroupGets? I understand that Hydromoths can be used terrestrially as well, but they are more expensive than the last Audiomoth campaigns have been by $50+ so just wanted to see if Audiomoths would still be cheaper. Just trying to figure out if I should buy more Hydromoths or wait until Audiomoths start selling again (ends up being a trade-off between cost and time basically).
31 July 2022 5:20pm
@Andrew_Hill I wonder if you could let us know more about the time keeping difference btw the regular AudioMoth and the HydroMoth (which is said to do better)?
Postdoc: Biologging & Behavioral Ecology of Marine Mammals
22 July 2022 7:42pm
Earth Species Project - Senior AI Research Scientist
15 July 2022 6:40pm
Director, Imaging Technology Lab (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
11 July 2022 6:32pm
Consultancy: Development and Implementation of SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) for São Tomé and Príncipe
1 July 2022 6:15pm
Calling all hydrophone users!
26 November 2020 10:06am
8 January 2021 4:54pm
This is super interesting to read, thanks for sharing back!
Steph
8 January 2021 5:07pm
Glad it was useful Steph.
We'll be leaving the survey open for as long as neccesary to build up a better idea of use-cases. So if any hydrophone users missed out you are more than welcome to add yours responses. We can then update the results later in the year.
Andy
Team Open Acoustic Devices
1 July 2022 12:06am
Hello,
The hydrophone_survey_results.pdf file is not opening. Is the link still working? I would be keen to see it. Thank you.
Self-powered Buoy collecting vital sensor data -- Looking for conservation projects to collaborate with
18 May 2022 6:28am
3 June 2022 7:19am
Hello Aadithya,
Excited to hear about your marine acoustics outreach. I am interested to explore the possibilities of collaborative work on this line.
One of my doctoral scholars is about to submit his thesis on terrestrial acoustic studies. Please respond to [email protected] (as I may likely miss responses if any, send to this group).
Regards
Jaishanker
14 June 2022 11:46am
Hi Jaishanker, I just reached out to over email, apologies for the delay. We are interested in working with underwater hydrophones and this might be of use in your specific case study. Bristlemouth's timeline is still being created, but we're hoping to have devkits ready closer to the end of this year. I'm happy to chat more to learn about the specific research you are doing and how we can best help!
21 June 2022 10:49pm
If you're looking to identify collaborators - probably lots of organizations listed in the Conservation Tech Directory would be interested (quick prelim search yields orgs like Echospace, European Tracking Network, FACT network, IMOS, IOOS, other tracking networks like that, USA's NEON, eOceans, Oceans+)! Also org's like Blue Ventures, Save our Seas (run acoustic tracking array), MBON (run Biotrack) come to mind.
New app aims to take a bite out of illegal shark fin trade
14 June 2022 3:52pm
Smithsonian Magazine: "Underwater Roombas" scan southern California coast for DDT barrels
4 June 2022 7:30pm
New article (Reuters): Orca stuck in river to be lured to sea using drone with loudspeakers
1 June 2022 4:02pm
Enhancing automated analysis of marine soundscapes using eco-acoustic indices and machine learning
31 May 2022 6:33pm
MTS TechSurge
10 February 2022 12:00am
Looking for marine biologists - Bioacoustic data processing made easier!
27 October 2021 6:55pm
30 November 2021 7:53am
Hi @carlybatist !
Thanks a lot for the recommendations!
3 December 2021 1:26pm
Hi Evelina - I would be interested in discussing this. I work with dolphin acoustics in the Chesapeake Bay, which is a particulalry challenging noise environment. Happy to try something new!
Cheers,
Robert
5 December 2021 4:58pm
Hi @cosmicspittle !
Thank you for your interest to our technology! I sent you a private message to continue the discussion.
Tech Tutors: How do I analyze large acoustic datasets using PAMGuard?
14 October 2021 3:42pm
Tech Tutors: How do I use animal-borne imaging technology in marine and terrestrial environments?
26 August 2021 12:10am
15 September 2021 6:41am
Hi @Rob+Appleby !
The implementation in the Vectronic camera collar is purely store on board - no transmission.
I believe they simply stuck one of the Foxeer action ("Box") cameras inside and wakes it up and triggers it according to the camera schedule uoloaded to the collar (still and video options).
RunCam is another manufacturer of FPV and action cameras which might be interesting for you.
Cheers,
Lars
15 September 2021 11:24pm
Hi Lars,
I have a colleague that's successfully used the Mobius cam system (https://www.mobius-actioncam.com/) for camera collars as well. RC cams are popular choice it seems. I have been attempting to tweak cheaper 'cube' cameras (e.g. https://tinyurl.com/w72kh77r) to do a similar job. I am using a bit of Frankestein's monster array of small control boards, including an Adafruit low power timer (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3573) and a SparkFun pro mini (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11113). I am using an SMD transistor as a switch to control power, and another could be added to control settings if needed. Hoping to do a tutorial on it at some point in case there's any interest.
Cheers,
Rob
16 September 2021 6:54am
Would certainly be cool to see a tutorial on this! Looking forward to that!
Job openings in marine tech & ML
18 August 2021 2:25pm
IoTs in Marine protected area management
7 June 2021 8:12am
8 June 2021 10:16am
Hi Mauman.
Did you have a specific application in mind? There are quite a few IoT systems but they all need to be pieced together. If there's a specific application context, I think it'd be an interesting discussion to have though.
Akiba
20 July 2022 3:06am
From Alex on Twitter: