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Image: Dell Technologies
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef ecosystem in the world and one of the seven natural wonders of the world. However, it is under severe threat.
A recent study by the ARC Center of Excellence Coral Reef Studies revealed that the Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral over the past three decades due to mass bleaching events caused by rising water temperatures.
Reef corals have an annual spawning event every November and December that has the potential to see healthy corals spread their larvae, with the help of the ocean current, to parts of the reef that have been affected by bleaching.
The challenges faced by the researchers are understanding how to identify and map these healthy coral reefs, how to assess how coral reefs can be protected, and how to monitor the dangers faced by corals. Due to the vast geographical range of the Great Barrier Reef – roughly the same size as Italy – the researchers regularly collected data from only about 5-10% of the reef.
In an effort to increase data collection, the conservation organization Citizens of the Greater Barrier Reef launched the Great Reef Census project.
The project aims to bring together stakeholders across tourism, including visitors and divers, science, research and business to assist and scale the collection of data from across the reef by capturing images of the reef.
Must Read: How AI and Drones Are Trying to Save the Great Barrier Reef (TechRepublic)
The organization has worked with Dell Technologies to ensure that the data collected by these stakeholders can be uploaded and transferred in real time to the University of Queensland marine research team.
According to Dell, it has built an integrated, ruggedized device that can be installed on ships used by tour operators or researchers. These devices, Dell said, are supported by Intel Atom and designed to work on their local Wi-Fi network so that stakeholders can connect to a purpose-built portal to upload captured images.
A pilot census program using the technology was conducted in 2019. Following the success of the pilot project, Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef expanded the project in October to examine 100 priority reefs in 11 weeks.
“This will give us the opportunity to test new technologies in the water, test the data upload and analytics platform, as well as mobilize a wide range of ships to the reef’s priority sites … our intention is to use the learnings from the 2020 census of 100 priority reefs as a launch vehicle for an even larger Great Barrier Reef census in 2021, ”said Citizens of the Great Barrier.
The data and insights gained through the project will be open source and made available to classrooms and researchers, the organization added.
The Great Reef Census project was carried out in collaboration with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, with the support of James Cook University. The project is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the Prior Family Foundation and the Reef and Rainforest Research Center.
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