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
PhD student from Brazil. Currently I am using satellite transmitters and biologgers to study the behavior of the sei whale
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups



- 1 Resources
- 29 Discussions
- 18 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 2 Groups
Conservation Biologist


- 2 Resources
- 16 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @team
- | team
Make the stories that make this life worth living.

- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Petnerup
Animal tech startup founder

- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 12 Groups
- @Mumonkan
- | he / him
Conservation X Labs & Wild Me
Software Engineer for Wildlife Conservation

- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- @aranFish
- | He/Him
CTO at SafetyNet Technologies


- 1 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- @mikew
- | He/him
I’m a biogeographer rooted in deep ecology.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 2 Groups
Wildlife Drones
Wildlife Drones has developed the world’s most innovative radio animal-tracking system using drones so you can track your radio-tagged animals like never before.


- 18 Resources
- 8 Discussions
- 32 Groups
- @lobrien
- | he/him
Low K-Shot Animal Reidentification pipelines
- 0 Resources
- 6 Discussions
- 5 Groups
Come and do the first research into responsible AI for biodiversity monitoring, developing ways to ensure these AIs are safe, unbiased and accountable.
11 June 2024
WildLabs will soon launch a 'Funding and Finance' group. What would be your wish list for such a group? Would you be interested in co-managing or otherwise helping out?
5 June 2024
Are you passionate about marine wildlife conservation? Excited to network and collaborate with fellow enthusiasts? Join us in launching the Coastal and Marine Wildlife Working Group within The Wildlife Society!
23 May 2024
The GSMA ClimateTech programme is seeking partner research consultant/s for a new project exploring mobile and digital technologies for the blue economy in low- and middle-income countries.
19 May 2024
Do you have photos and videos of your conservation tech work? We want to include them in a conservation technology showcase video
17 May 2024
Article
Read in detail about how to use The Inventory, our new living directory of conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects.
1 May 2024
Article
The Inventory is your one-stop shop for conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects. Start contributing to it now!
1 May 2024
ZSL is looking for an enthusiastic research scientist to join the multidisciplinary team and help deliver a project in Wales to better understand the ecology of tope sharks (Galeus galeus) in North Cardigan Bay and the...
9 April 2024
Check out how water-based sporting events are impacting underwater noise pollution for marine life.
3 April 2024
Finwave, while currently in beta-testing, is being used to help reunite an orphaned whale with its family.
3 April 2024
Marine bioacoustics is making waves in Science News!
3 April 2024
WWF is looking for consultant(s) with expertise in spatial data mapping and analysis.
19 March 2024
June 2025
October 2025
event
March 2024
event
December 2023
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
---|---|---|---|---|
During Andrew's talk in our June Variety hour (see here), @dmorris put out a call in the chat that might be relevant to our marine and ai... |
|
AI for Conservation, Marine Conservation | 1 year 10 months ago | |
During Andrew's talk, @dmorris put out a call in the chat that might be relevant to folks catching up on the video, so I'll drop it here too: Re: Andrew's fish work... part... |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones, Marine Conservation | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Hi Lev,We always need more hands in conservation, from whichever field! Engineering, computer science, AI/ML, ecology, environmental science, communications, statisticians, etc.... |
|
Community Base, Data management and processing tools, Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Hello Everyone! My name is Claire and I work as a Field Technician and Veterinarian for Arribada Initiative, check out our upcoming... |
|
Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Hi all! I am a mechanical engineer working in the Aerospace Engineering department at a University, and I have the opportunity to take over... |
|
Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Marine Monitor (M2) LLC is a small, focused company building scalable vessel monitoring solutions to support Marine Conservation. We are... |
|
Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools, Software Development | 1 year 11 months ago | |
Hi. I'm looking for an off-the-shelf saltwater switch for an undersea application. It needs to be depth rated Is there anything like this... |
|
Marine Conservation, Sensors | 2 years ago | |
Not sure exactly how your telemetry will be deployed, but if it's going to be attached to an animal in a relatively non-invasive way, you might check with zoos or aquariums that... |
+3
|
Animal Movement, Marine Conservation, Sensors | 2 years 1 month ago | |
Hi everyone! The Fine Grained Visual Categorization Workshop (FGVC) is hosting its 10th rendition at CVPR this June in Vancouver. A huge... |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Marine Conservation | 2 years 1 month ago | |
In 2020, I made a survey of sea turtle research databases and an outline for a design of the most commonly required features. At that time, building such a database seemed too... |
|
Marine Conservation | 2 years 1 month ago | |
We have made available our underwater videos on YouTube as a playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnhVZKKy8WkZKriCIV6r7upWhHNVrU_7L It's about 1.113 short video... |
+2
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Marine Conservation | 2 years 2 months ago | |
Hey all!I'm looking for image datasets of Indo-Pacific fish species (Red Sea, if I'm being specific) for detection/classification.... |
|
Marine Conservation | 2 years 6 months ago |