Fish AI Consortium Presentation: Rapid improvements in fisheries monitoring with underwater computer vision

Posted by Jasmine Hall
On April 5, 2024

Written by Jasmine Hall and edited by Alex White In March 2024, Professor Rod Connolly presented at the inaugural Fish AI Consortium seminar series, showing how automation using underwater computer vision is transforming fisheries science and empowering conservation practitioners in the coastal and marine space. He shared results from three case studies comparing restored and […]

Co-occurrence of ecosystem services to inform global mangrove conservation planning

Posted by Alex White
On February 7, 2024

Written by Alex White and Jasmine Hall Mangrove forests provide important ecosystem services (ES) such as sequestering carbon, supporting invertebrate fish production, and protecting coastlines. These forests are also vital habitats for wildlife and support biodiversity in the land and sea. Despite their importance, mangroves are declining, with protection and restoration efforts ranging from modest […]

How can the Global Biodiversity Framework enhance coastal wetland conservation?

Posted by Alex White
On December 22, 2023

By Alex White Earlier this year, 196 countries pledged to uphold the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), which was implemented to support equitable and sustainable long-term use of the Earth’s ecosystems. Now, these countries must coordinate actions to conserve and sustain Earth’s ecosystems. A major challenge to coordinating actions internationally are the diverse socioeconomic and […]

Greater Consideration of Animals Will Enhance Coastal Restoration Outcomes

Posted by Alex White
On August 15, 2023

The restoration of ecosystems that continue to be lost and degraded is a key challenge of the 21st century. Given the enormous effort and investment, it is critical that projects maximise benefits for biodiversity. Unfortunately, restoring coastal habitats is notoriously difficult. One likely, yet largely overlooked, impediment to effective restoration of coastal systems could be […]

Deep learning for ecological monitoring: performance in novel habitats and benefits of varied training data

Posted by Ellen Ditria
On October 26, 2020

By Ellen Ditria, PhD candidate Deep learning has fast become recognised as a powerful data processing tool for ecologists faced with vast amounts of image-based data. The ability of deep learning to accurately detect target species in videos and images unlocks the potential for rapid processing of data that usually requires hours of manual labour. […]

Balancing conflicting human values for seagrass, saltmarsh and mangroves

Posted by Chris Brown
On July 25, 2020

The coast sits the intersection of many human activities. Management of coastal ecosystems is challenged by the conflicting values that humans hold for the coasts, including conservation, shipping, fishing, aquaculture, recreation and many others. One objective of the Global Wetlands Project is to help find ways that management can balance these different values for coasts […]

Long-distance sea turtle migration provides unique opportunity to combine and test exciting tracking techniques

Posted by Ryan Pearson
On July 17, 2020

By Dr Ryan Pearson In February 2016, a female loggerhead sea turtle dubbed ‘Marloo’ had a satellite transmitter attached to her shell on a beach south of Exmouth, Western Australia by the Gnaraloo wilderness foundation. Many months, and more than 4000 km’s, later she was recovered on an island near Darwin. Aub Strydom found a […]

Harnessing Big Data to Support Mangrove Conservation and Rehabilitation

Posted by Ellen Ditria
On May 27, 2020

By Dr Michael Sievers and Dr Christina Buelow, Global Wetlands Project We are entering a remarkable era of both technological advancement and open data access, stimulating global scale analyses on mangrove ecosystems. Mangrove trees and roots provide critical habitat for wildlife and benefits to humans. Photo credit: Tom Rayner Mangrove forests occur throughout […]

Mangroves taking eons to recover from oil spill

Posted by Ellen Ditria
On May 20, 2020

By Professor Rod Connolly On a dark and stormy night in 1992 a major oil slick polluted a pristine mangrove forest. The oil came from a shipping mishap at the hydrocarbon facility at Port Bonython in Spencer Gulf, South Australia. It’s a significant wilderness area, home to flocks of imperious pelicans, endemic seadragons, and the […]

Mangroves, oasis of the desert

Posted by Ellen Ditria
On May 19, 2020

By Dr. Fernanda Adame and Dr. Mischa Turschwell If you ever fly over a subtropical coast, where the desert meets the ocean, you will notice a stripe of bright green bordering the edges of meandering creeks. The greenery contrasts with the orange, yellow, and red of the surrounding desert. In this seemingly inhospitable landscape, where […]