Our AI for Coral Bleaching Hackathon with SOA Sausilito, California 2022

Hackthon Experience

The Challenge

For this challenge, we set out to focus on AI for Coral Bleaching.
The Nature Conservancy, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and Reef Support came together for the AI for Coral Bleaching Hackathon, a collaborative effort to explore the potential of AI in coral reef conservation. The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental organization, brought their expertise in coral reef conservation and management to the table. Sustainable Ocean Alliance, a youth-led organization focused on ocean sustainability, provided a platform for young innovators to come up with solutions to pressing ocean issues. Reef Support, a startup dedicated to using AI and machine learning for coral reef conservation, was the challenge owner of the hackathon.
The use of AI tools for automated processing of coral data is an important development for the field of coral conservation and management. With the current state of our oceans, coral reefs are facing unprecedented threats such as coral bleaching, ocean acidification, and overfishing. As a result, the need for efficient and effective monitoring and management strategies has become more pressing than ever before.
AI tools for coral bleaching can play a crucial role in this process by providing automated and accurate analysis of coral data. This can help identify the extent of coral bleaching in a timely manner and allow for early intervention to mitigate its effects. The use of AI can also help to streamline the process of data collection and analysis, which is crucial for large-scale monitoring efforts.
In addition, AI tools can assist with the identification of key stressors affecting coral reefs. By analyzing a variety of environmental and biological data, AI algorithms can identify patterns and correlations that may not be immediately apparent to human researchers. This information can then be used to inform management decisions and guide conservation efforts.
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A Hackathon Baby!

If you're interested, some Methods and Results the team accomplished

During the AI for Coral Bleaching Hackathon organized by the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, the Reef Support team used the k-means segmentation technique to detect live coral cover and coral bleaching extent. This was a critical step in creating an accurate AI model to predict coral bleaching events and identify healthy and unhealthy coral reefs.
K-means segmentation is a popular unsupervised machine learning technique used to cluster similar data points. In the context of coral reefs, this technique was used to segment images into different clusters based on color and texture. By identifying clusters that represented live coral cover and those that represented bleached coral, the Reef Support team was able to create a model that accurately predicted the extent of coral bleaching in an image.
To validate the accuracy of the model, the team manually examined and labeled approximately 100 images to determine the actual percentage of live coral cover and bleached coral in each image. The results of the manual validation were compared to the predictions made by the AI model, and the model was found to be accurate in detecting live coral cover and coral bleaching extent.
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This project is a project very close to our hearts at Reef Support. It isn’t only about helping coastal communities in their effort to monitor and restore the reefs but also about fostering wide-spread marine knowledge!

If like us you are fond of our oceans and want to save these beautiful creatures which are so important to our ecosystem, we would like to give you the opportunity to adopt your own coral spider. And what is even cooler is that they will tag your name personally on it and give you a monthly report of its coral growth! Visit the page below to find out more on how to participate.