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
No showcases have been added to this group yet.
Board of Directors, Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group. Interests include AI applications supporting salmonid species recovery
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- 2 Groups
- @seabassphd
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Project manager for FishID
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- 1 Discussions
- 1 Groups
Electrical Engineering Student| Robotics Club, Center For Innovation (CFI) | Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
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- 1 Discussions
- 5 Groups
Marine biologist, cetaceans lover and bioacoustic's methods beginner (experience with sperm whale's click!)
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- 2 Discussions
- 3 Groups
Zoological Society London (ZSL)
Water-landing fixed-wing drones in marine ecology and maritime surveillance in MPAs and beyond.
- 1 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 10 Groups
Stanford University
Doctoral Research at Stanford University | Interested in data science and observational approaches for issues in coastal health
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- 8 Groups
- @patrick
- | He/Him
Space signal processing engineer by day, environmental data analyst by night.
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Masters Student - Using animal borne cameras to research tiger and white shark behavioural ecology
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- @Christian
- | He/Him
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Fauna & Flora
Project Manager, Marine Species and Ecosystems
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- 1 Groups
University of Cambridge & British Antarctic Survey
Analysing seabird tracking data to inform marine conservation.
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- 5 Groups
- @Alex_Tytgat
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Junior machine learning engineer with a background in data science and physics
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- 20 Groups
Funding
The Mesoamerican Reef Fund ( MAR Fund ) calls proposals for its small grants program and for the Reef Rescue Initiative. | El Fondo para el Sistema Arrecifal Mesoamericano (MAR Fund) convoca propuestas para su programa...
3 October 2024
Funding
The Connected Conservation is thrilled to announce our award's third round in collaboration with the Airbus Foundation. This award champions the use of cutting-edge satellite imagery to tackle biodiversity loss and...
30 September 2024
Funding
The Coral Research & Development Accelerator Platform opened it's Coral Accelerator Program 2024 for internationally collaborating teams to apply with innovative projects ranging from 'novel early-phase' to 'final...
26 August 2024
Careers
Seeking expressions of interest from PhD candidates to join the MAVE Lab at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia
26 August 2024
Article
Join us for Season Five of the WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Series, tuning in to the world of Bioacoustics! Laying the groundwork for our new horizon scan research, each event will convene cross-sector experts to explore a...
22 August 2024
Article
Join us in celebrating this year’s Judging Panele Award winners!
19 August 2024
Article
Join us in celebrating this year’s Community Choice Award winners!
15 August 2024
Article
Vote for your favorite submissions that best demonstrate conservation impact, novel innovation/discovery, and strong storytelling of the work and the sector.
12 August 2024
Article
We’re taking a look at past and current submissions that feature the fastest growing areas of conservation tech: movement ecology, AI, aquatic conservation, and bioacoustics. Today’s topic: aquatic conservation!
8 August 2024
Article
Read our exciting interview with Samuel Mangi, a Marine Expert working to conserve sea turtles at Bahari Hai in Watamu using underwater monitoring tools and cloud storage.
19 July 2024
Discover the challenges marine animals face in busy shipping lanes—from the constant noise disrupting their habitats to the threat of ship collisions. Slowing down ships could offer a simple yet effective solution to...
8 July 2024
Careers
Fully funded PhD in AI biodiversity monitoring
Benno Simmons
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
October 2025
event
Lacey Hughey and 3 more
March 2026
February 2023
event
Matthew Creasey
January 2023
event
Matthew Creasey
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| We’re excited to announce that Deep Voice has received a 2025 Wildlabs Award to develop a public, web-based platform for marine mammal... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Marine Conservation | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
| True, the US ecosystem is a challenging space right now, for basically all sectors. We should not let the US chaos prevent us from engaging with opportunities in other... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Connectivity, Drones, Emerging Tech, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Marine Conservation, Sensors | 4 months ago | |
| Fascinating article, combining machine learning and acoustical signals to correlate coral reef health.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Marine Conservation | 3 years 2 months ago | |
| Good morning JocelynThank you very much for your comment, this is proving to be very useful advice and thank you so much for setting me on the right path!! This is very exciting!!... |
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Animal Movement, Citizen Science, Human-Wildlife Coexistence, Marine Conservation, Drones, Community Base, Geospatial | 4 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Thanks so much for all the advice!! This seems very achievable. We don't mind having the fibre optic fixed in place as we planned to have a shorter one specifically for this... |
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Sensors, Marine Conservation | 5 months 2 weeks ago | |
| Hey Scott, I'll answer that since Evelina left us.Since 2021, we've been on a few expeditions collecting our own data, collaborated with organisations worldwide, and won... |
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Marine Conservation | 6 months ago | |
| Hello everyone. My name is Bilal. I recently graduated with a degree in bioengineering and hold a bachelor's degree in computer science,... |
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AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Human-Wildlife Coexistence, Marine Conservation | 7 months ago | |
| Hi Simon,We (Reneco International Wildlife Consultants) have an ongoing collaboration with a local University (Abu Dhabi, UAE) for developing AI tools (cameratrap/drone... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Connectivity, Drones, Early Career, eDNA & Genomics, Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools, Sensors | 7 months ago | |
| Hi Matthew Wow, what an amazing project! It is incredible how you have managed to figure out some of the complexities of combining underwater imagery with UAV imagery. I am... |
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Drones, Geospatial, Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools | 7 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hello everyone,I built Brave Puffin (https://bravepuffin.com) - a small, autonomous, long range, solar powered boat. It is designed to... |
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Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Marine Conservation, Sensors | 7 months 4 weeks ago | |
| Steve and I are looking to develop a low-cost benthic drift camera with a live video feed. Our hope is to use an acoustic modem to give us a low quality feed for navigation /... |
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Marine Conservation, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 7 months 4 weeks ago | |
| Hi Muhammad,The best reference I know of covering shallow soft corals around Indonesia is Fabricius & Alderslade, its not a complete guide to everything you might see there,... |
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Marine Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education | 8 months 2 weeks ago |
