Coastal Climate Resilience at the Seattle Aquarium
Overview
This is a public repository to organize information and resources regarding 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:
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1. Expand the spatial extent (seafloor area) across which we gather high-resolution photo/video imagery.
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2. Use open-source AI methods of image analysis to efficiently extract large amounts of data from our imagery.
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3. Conduct data analysis to better understand the patterns of population health and ecological resilience for kelp, invertebrates, and fishes.
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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.
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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]
🗺️ CCR repositories
The Seattle Aquarium’s Coastal Climate Resilience (CCR) work spans the repos below. 🔶 = help wanted · 📍 = you are here.
🌊 Coastal_Climate_Resilience · start here
Program overview, objectives, talks, media coverage, and year-end reports.
📍 You are here
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| 📚 Core field methods and data analysis |
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🤖 CCR_ROV_survey_methods
ROV hardware, field workflow, and telemetry processing, including custom desktop apps.
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📊 CCR_benthic_analyses
ML percent-cover classification and object detection, plus community analyses of the resulting data.
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| 🖼️ Image processing |
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Unedited frame
📷 CCR_image_processing
The photo-editing bottleneck, with unedited and hand-edited image sets for training and testing.
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Same frame, ML-enhanced
✨ underwater-auto-image-encoder
ML pipeline and desktop app that turns raw GoPro photos into survey-ready images.
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| 🙋 Get involved |
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🛠️ CCR_development
Open Issues and 1-page project descriptions for robotics, telemetry, software, AI/ML, and computer vision work. All research and development is open and is tracked via Git Issues.
🔶 Help wanted: pick up an open Issue.
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| 🧪 Standalone projects |
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⚡ ROV_underwater_wireless_charging
Prototype underwater wireless charging dock for a BlueROV2 at Pier 59, with the UW Applied Physics Lab, Blue Robotics, and WiBotic.
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🌿 understory_kelp_indicator
Puget Sound Understory Kelp Vital Sign indicator, co-developed with Reef Check from diver and ROV surveys.
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📦 Archived projects
CCR_kelp_feature_detection: tested photogrammetry feature detectors on kelp forest imagery. No longer under active development; its 25-image test set and reviewed percent-cover annotations remain available.
ROV videos, photos from deployments, and hardware/software
- To view an example of ROV survey imagery, see this folder with imagery from offshore of Centennial Park, Seattle
- To view videos from the ROV, see the ROV_video_vignettes document (here)
- To view all hardware and software associated with this project, see the hardware_software document (here)
Public facing
- To view an Earth Day at the Seattle Aquarium with Xbox livestream, see this link
- To view a August 2024 guest lecture at the Applied Physics Lab (APL), see this link
- 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
Synopses
- To read the 2024 year-end report to the Port of Seattle, download the pdf found at this link
- 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
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)
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