Koster seafloor observatory launched

[2020-04-28] Seanalytics proundly presents The Koster seafloor observatory – an online resource for research and education on marine biodiversity.

In April 2020, our expert team in Ocean Data Factory launched a new website with snapshots of deepwater recordings from the Swedish West coast, especially from Kosterhavets National Park. The short movies document an environment that is otherwise invisible. You can see dead whales, flying feather stars, swimming scallops, and many more exciting creatures of the deep. Anyone can join the observatory, watch animals in their natural habitat, identify species, and ask experts for advice.

The identifications made by the “virtual visitors” of the National park help train the artificial intelligence algorithms developed by Ocean Data Factory, which can recognize key ecological species from seafloor imagery. This way we can record and monitor many species in the future with the help of underwater drones and other remotely controlled vehicles.

The Koster Seafloor observatory is part of the VINNOVA-financed Ocean Data Factory, a project that allows companies like Seanalytics, Wildlife.ai, and Combine to collaborate in an academic envrionment and develop societal applications from the wealth of marine knowledge available at the University of Gothenburg.