Seattle_Aquarium_Coastal_Climate_Resilience

Overview

This is a public repository to organize information and resources pertaining to the Seattle Aquarium's Coastal Climate Resilience (CCR) program. Specifically, we have developed and implemented standardized methods to use small remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to conduct video/photo surveys along relatively shallow coastal areas (5-40m depth), especially along canopy-forming and understory kelp forest locations. We envision fully integrating ROVs as another tool in the coastal ecologists' toolkit that can (among other missions) complement and enhance existing long-term subtidal monitoring programs.

Our objectives:

1. Expand the spatial extent (seafloor area) across which we gather high-resolution photo/video imagery.
2. Use open-source AI methods of image analysis to efficiently extract large amounts of data from our imagery.
3. Conduct data analysis to bettern understand the patterns of population health and ecological resilience for kelp, invertebrates, and fishes.
4. Integrate these ROV-derived data with other sources of information such as data from scuba divers, fixed sensors, autonomous surface vessels (ASVs), drones, and satellite imagery, in order to maximize our inferences about benthic community structure, stability, and resilience.
5. We commit to pursue 1. - 4. in an open-source, open-access manner such that our partners, collaborators, and the public can replicate what we've started in order to advance their own coastal monitoring, conservation, restoration, and management objectives. We likewise commit to actively support our partners in the development of their own ROV programs. Similar to the broad geographic reach of the standardized protocols set down by scientific diving programs such as Reef Check and PISCO, we envision a network of collaborators using standardized ROV survey protocols to enhance our collective data collection, analysis, and coordination capacity.

The purpose of this repo is to make general and introductory information about the CCR program accessible to our partners, collaborators, and the public. All information and documentation associated with the repo is freely available to download and share. We welcome collaborators and partners, as well as feedback, comments, and questions. Please direct contact to [email protected]

Other CCR GitHub repositories

Seattle_Aquarium_CCR_analytical_resources	A hub for code and other analytical resources associated with our CCR program
Seattle_Aquarium_CCR_development	Standalone 1-page project descriptions that someone with specialized skills could advance
Seattle_Aquarium_CCR_benthic_taxa_simulation	All code necessary to simulate ROV-derived data for analytical development

ROV videos, photos from deployments, and hardware/software

To view videos from the ROV, see the ROV_video_vignettes document (here)
To view photos of the ROV and from its deployment, see this Google Drive folder
To view all hardware and software associated with this project, see the hardware_software document (here)

Public facing

To view a Seattle Channel video detailing our partnership with Port of Seattle, see this link
To read a Seattle Times article about our partnership with the Port of Seattle, see this link
To view a keynote talk at BlueTIDES 2023 hosted by Blue Robotics in Los Angeles, see this link
To view an October 2023 talk at the Elakha Alliance Sea Otter Science Symposium, see this link
To view a live-streamed ROV dive facilitated by StreamYard and a Verizon MiFi unit, see this link
To view a January 2023 talk at the Puget Sound Kelp Research and Monitoring Workgroup, see this link
To view a Xbox Twitch Stream event, view this link starting at 22:00.
To read a post detailing our research on the BlueRobotics forums, see this link
To read an article in the Wahkiakum County Eagle about our ROV outreach and engagement, see this link
To view an interview with Diane Tomecek, CEO and President of Sea Otter Foundation and Trust, see this link
To view a November 2021 talk at the Puget Sound Kelp Research and Monitoring Workgroup, see this link

Synopses

To read the 2023 year-end report to the Port of Seattle, download the pdf found at this link
To read a mid-year, July 2023 report to the Port of Seattle, download the pdf found at this link
To read our 2022 year-end report to the Port of Seattle, download the pdf found at this link
To read our August 2022 mid-year report to the Port of Seattle, download the pdf found at this link
To read an early (April 2022) report on preliminary ROV testing and AI proof-of-concept analyses, download the pdf at this link

Funding proposals

To read a proposal funded by the North Pacific Coast Marine Resources Committee, see North_Pacific_Coast_MRC_proposal document (pdf)
To read a proposal funded by Sea Otter Foundation and Trust, see the SOFT_2022_SeattleAquarium_proposal document (pdf)

zhrandell / seattle_aquarium_coastal_climate_resilience Goto Github PK