Technology in the tides

Scientists and conservationists have been pushing for more marine protected areas, regions that restrict human activity to protect marine life. But, they're quickly realizing it’s not about the quantity of mpa’s, but the quality.

A collaborative coastal network of signaling devices called StationKeepers is enabling ship operators to receive real-time whale location alerts directly on their navigation screens, resulting in significantly reduced collisions and greater protection for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The startup Ichthion created a system that skims plastic off of rivers in Ecuador to prevent it from reaching the ocean. A floating barrier stretches across the river to catch the plastic without disrupting fish, and a person manually guides the pollution onto the shore where it’s sorted for recycling.

In the South Indian coast, erosion is leading to disappearing beaches. A study found that this erosion was in part due to man-made structures like a harbor that was built in the late 80s, groynes, and seawalls. These structures were interfering with the natural movement of sand. To fix it, they needed a structure that could block waves but also allow sand movement, the solution? An artificial reef. It was installed and some beaches are already seeing the results.

The research group, Beneath the Waves, is cultivating cross-sector collaborations with nonprofits, scientists, and individual philanthropists in order to better study the movements and patterns of sharks in the Bahamas. What has typically been a challenging task has been made possible through the use of acoustic tags, which can provide researchers insight into ocean ecosystems and thus conservation. Such initiatives are part of a larger trend of bringing together private donors, nonprofits, and ocean scientists to bolster marine science and conservation efforts.

As coral reefs around the world are threatened by warming waters, mini-satellites are collecting images each day from space that put together a more comprehensive picture of the problems. This saves scientists time, energy, and money, and it means resources can be better targeted to the reefs that need the most help.

Researchers are using satellite imagery and data to create the first global, high-resolution map of all coral reefs. The project, known as the Allen Coral Atlas, will help provide a baseline for scientists to monitor bleaching events and other short-term changes, which could lead to devastating changes.

Traditionally, whales have been studied through research vessels, which are hard to maneuver, and costly to make. However, drones with the ability to capture a whale’s snot, are providing a much easier, and cheaper alternative to whale research.

In an effort to collect data about the environmental health of high traffic destinations, researchers are examining the text and images of geotagged social media posts. Tweets about the Great Barrier Reef were analyzed for relevant information about specifically where people visited, common activities, and common complaints. While people passively provided data by geotagging posts, researchers are also proposing creating hashtags that allow for people to actively communicate data to researchers through social media posts.

There's a robot revolution happening in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it's all in the name of mapping our oceans. This boom of technological innovation is helping bring lower-cost tools to both researchers and citizens. These consumers in turn use the devices to take photos during their excursions that ultimately create a network of ocean data that helps map the realities of concerns such as ocean acidification, rising water temperatures and overfishing.