Photo Point Enhancement project with Reef Teach

This pilot study was set up in 2019, with the aim of monitoring changes of coral reef over time. Gareth from Reef Teach, and the lead partner in this project, launched this project to promote the use of geo-reference images, which would then be analysed by artificial intelligence at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) – the data collected enhancing the data received through the previously-established Eye on the Reef Programme of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA).

Plans were to participate with this project in early 2020 – however due to COVID delays we were finally “set up” by the Reef Teach team in July 2020.

In practical terms, for us as tourism operators, our crew were trained to take a set of 20 photos along a pre-established tourism trail, to be repeated at set time intervals during the year. These photos are then downloaded and sent for analysis.

Ocean Free & Ocean Freedom came on board with this project as we feel there is so little known about the complexities of reef and in particular how these may change over time. Using photo analysis with other collected data, collectively providing perhaps a more objective analysis.