Fish and Shark Data

The Challenge

Marine imagery and annotation data on fish and shark assemblages provide powerful biodiversity reporting and impactful science communication.

The Australian Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) Synthesis data asset (established through GlobalArchive) has the potential to contribute the type of data used to illustrate climate change impacts, reveal environmental change within marine parks and indicate pathways to maximise bio-economic management globally, however more data is needed.

The Response

The project will provide transformational data analytics and environmental reporting workflows. It will achieve this by:

• extending the coverage and formalising governance arrangements for the existing BRUV synthesis data asset
• building consensus for adoption and implementation on data standards, including an open-by-default model to increase data discoverability and accessibility and improve usability
• developing and adopting data capture workflows, curation pipelines and interfaces
• implementing data summary and synthesis layers in GlobalArchive that are machine syndicated to other platforms and portals.

Who Will Benefit

Researchers, research organisations and government agencies will benefit from:

• enhanced data discoverability with the syndication of summary and synthesis data products across national platforms
• transformational data analytics and environmental reporting workflows
• improved data availability through standardised metadata, machine-readability, and open by default access.

The Partners

Our partners for this project are:

• University of Western Australia
• Integrated Marine Observing System
• Western Australia Marine Science Institution
• Australian Ocean Data Network
• Western Australia Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions
• Western Australia Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
• South Australian Department for Environment and Water
• Parks Victoria
• NSW Department of Primary Industries
• CSIRO
• Flinders University
• Curtin University
• Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
• SeaGIS Pty Ltd
• Australian Institute of Marine Science
• The Nature Conservancy
• Massey University of New Zealand
• South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity
• Sao Paulo State University
• Dalhousie University (Canada).

Target Outcomes

This project will ensure the future growth of the Australian BRUV synthesis data asset. This data asset has been identified as a critical component for the sustained monitoring of federal, state and territory marine park or reserve networks, where stereo-BRUVs are a key tool for the non-destructive monitoring of fish assemblages across a range of water depths.