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
Senior web developer and ML practitioner
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Developing and scaling innovative solutions to climate change and nature loss
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- @nancyalice
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Conservation Communicator | Technology for Wildlife Foundation (TfW)
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- @serena.le
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Conservation tech enthusiast
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Passionate about wildlife and impact investment with an academic, research and practitioner background in environmental science, environmental law and green criminology pursued in Central America, China, Tanzania and the United Kingdom I am driven to decolonise the research on c
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Dedicated wildlife conservationist with over three years of hands-on experience in field research and conservation. Through extensive fieldwork i developed a strong foundation in various conservation techniques, including camera trap deployment, plant inventory methods.
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- @JunglelaniTales
- | We
We currently producing an animation series meant to teach and inspire climate action to kids. Looking forward to networking opportunities.
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National Geographic Society
Experience utilizing technology to inspire, educate, and create solutions to some of our biggest challenges. Currently, head of the National Geographic Society Exploration Technology Lab, overseeing the development and deployment of research and storytelling technologies.
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- @issiecorvi
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Ocean Vision AI Program Manager (MBARI)
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MSc Engineering / IoT Engineer / Nature Enthusiast
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Movement Ecologist studying the where, why, and how animals move throughout our world. Current work is investigating the movement and energetics of large neotropical bats in a changing environment with ephemeral resources.
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Careers
Job: Software Engineer at Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory
Aaron Roan BOSL
Seeking Software Engineer for Marine Science Lab a UC Santa Barbara
19 December 2022
We are developing a project in Thailand, using drones to locate lost & discarded fishing gear across Koh Phangan, Thailand. We're 86% there & only need $1500 to get us over the line. If you can help us, we...
18 December 2022
Careers
Join NASA’s harmful algal bloom ML challenge and win prizes!
Katie Wetstone
Using satellite imagery to detect and classify the severity of cyanobacteria blooms in small, inland water bodies.
15 December 2022
Article
New: Satellites for Biodiversity Award
Emma Oldham
Conservation partnership launches new award to advance biodiversity conservation from space
5 December 2022
Article
Underwater Camera Trap Video Confirms 1,100-Mile (1800-km) Swim of Tagged Great White Shark
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
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
Shark Lab Data Analyst
Carly Batist
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
Link
"We develop the use of benthic species as animal oceanographers by combining archival (depth, temperature) data from animal-borne tags, passive acoustic telemetry & citizen-science mark-recapture records for the...
10 October 2022
Article
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
Article
The device could help scientists explore unknown regions of the ocean, track pollution, or monitor the effects of climate change.
26 September 2022
Link
Authors demonstrated "a low cost, simple method to support acoustic tag surveys by identifying tags both from direct acoustic recordings & by reconstructing code packets from processed C-POD data. Method was applied...
26 September 2022
Funding
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
Link
Authors "developed a three-hydrophone passive acoustic monitoring system that provides bearing information along with marine mammal detections to allow for informed management decisions in real-time."
20 September 2022
June 2025
October 2025
event
Lacey Hughey and 3 more
July 2024
May 2024
April 2024
event
Alex Rood
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 1 month 1 week ago | |
| Play FathomVerse: App Store | Google Play Join the Community: Discord | Instagram | TikTok | LinkedInStay up-to-date: ... |
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Marine Conservation, AI for Conservation, Citizen Science | 1 month 3 weeks 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 Conflict, Marine Conservation, Drones, Community Base, Geospatial | 1 month 4 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 | 2 months 3 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... |
+3
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Marine Conservation | 3 months 1 week 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 Conflict, Marine Conservation | 4 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 | 4 months 1 week 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 | 5 months 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 | 5 months 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 | 5 months 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 | 5 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hi Brett, I am interested in developing really low cost multi channel underwater acoustic recorders. Can you tell me a bit more about the board and stuff you were using... |
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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 | 7 months ago |
How can technology help reduce manatee boat strikes?
9 February 2016 4:42pm
18 March 2016 5:23pm
Hi John,
Have you checked out Whale Alert? There may be some scope for applying/adapting the same technology for averting manatee strikes by applying it to the recreational boating sector.
Best regards,
Gavin
Beauty as a cheap monitoring tool for reefs?
26 November 2015 5:13pm
11 February 2016 8:16pm
Using SMART to record and map where the boat strikes (and/or sightings of injured manatees) are happening could be a good way to at least get a better idea of the problem, where it is happening and times of year etc.