Through Marine Discoveries support and mentoring, operators select representative locations and Marine Discoveries trains the staff in the data collection.
The innovation in this project comes from the introduction of the AI. It gives us the ability to analyse thousands of images quickly and regularly to observe and understand how coral is changing on the reef. The geo-referencing allows the photos to be repeatable and the data reliable.
The tourism industry is, and always has been, actively monitoring and reporting on reef health – since 1986. The GBRMPA uses this data to inform their management or decide on incident responses. Through our project, tourism operators throughout the GBR are now taking underwater images several times a year with the data we collect being integrated by GBRMPA into the Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program, as well as being used by Marine Discoveries for future research.
With the current changes we are seeing on reefs around the world, the information we can collect through scientific studies is even more important now than ever before.