[Coral-List] drone used to photograph reefs

Sat Jun 29 13:23:52 UTC 2019

Hi Doug,
thanks for sharing.
We’ve been using a regular off-the-shelf drone (~$800) with agricultural mapping/stitching software for a couple of years. A reasonable example is in the Round Hill Bay in Hanover, Jamaica (a little west of Montego Bay) where we caught images during the Oct’17 bleaching event* and again a couple of months ago**. The total area is a little over 3Ha, with the reef-tops at ~20cm deep and the sand at ~7m. 

I expect that Issues with overhead could be partially mitigated by tinkering with the light spectrum, polarizing filters etc., but the real killers are needing dead-flat water, & then dead-clear water if you’d like useful detail down to 3~4m. Without, I have doubts that a $15,000 “normal” camera’s going to be much help. No, sorry, we’ve not done analysis beyond general mapping, planning & programmatic interest/marketing etc. 

Feel free to take a look at the images at:
*  : <https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekv468t79kv50gu/RoundHillNov92017_Orthomosaic_export_FriNov10%20copy.jpg?dl=0 <https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekv468t79kv50gu/RoundHillNov92017_Orthomosaic_export_FriNov10%20copy.jpg?dl=0>>
** : <https://www.dropbox.com/s/pe030yxbkw8xnkn/RoundHill_March2019_ADJ.jpg?dl=0 <https://www.dropbox.com/s/pe030yxbkw8xnkn/RoundHill_March2019_ADJ.jpg?dl=0>>
If you'd like to use beyond personal interest, please get in touch for the logo/references to the client & my little crew. 

Steve Shill’s been tinkering with a boat-drone holding the lens just below the surface that should be the game-changer for us/our applications, particularly if it can be fitted with multi-spectral cameras.

Andrew M. Ross, Ph.D. 
Seascape Caribbean
+1-876-363-8850

> On Jun 28, 2019, at 4:20 PM, Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> 
> So fantastic whiz-bang technology!  Great!!  We'd all like to be able to
> finally see what the reef looks like, each bump, hole, and coral colony, on
> our computer screens in the office or lab.  Never mind that it is only a
> tiny patch of the world's reefs.  Article didn't say how much 6 mo of
> supercomputer time to crunch the data will cost.  Surely vastly more than
> the $90,000 for the camera and $15,000 for the drone.  How practical will
> that be for mapping the world's reefs?  What major coral reef problem will
> be solved by this?  Will it solve some major mystery about reefs?  Will it
> save any reefs or corals?  I didn't see an answer to that in the article.
> A person was quoted in this article as saying it is faster than having
> someone go underwater and take a lot of pictures and stitch them together.
> But clearly not faster if you include computer time.  Instead of 6 mo of
> supercomputer, you can do the computer processing on your own computer in a
> few hours with software that is dirt cheap compared to a supercomputer for
> 6 mo.  For the price of supercomputer for 6 mo, you could provide funding
> for reef management for a whole country for a year or more, I would guess.
> Or voluntary birth control for a whole small country for a year or so (I'm
> totally with you on that, Alina!).
>    I'm playing "devil's advocate" here.
>     Cheers,  Doug
> 
> 
> On Sat, Jun 29, 2019 at 7:04 AM Nicole Crane <nicrane at cabrillo.edu <mailto:nicrane at cabrillo.edu>> wrote:
> 
>> Just saw a presentation on this while in Guam. Super!
>> Nicole
>> 
>> On Fri, Jun 28, 2019 at 10:25 AM Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
>> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>> 
>>> Drone takes to the skies to image offshore reefs
>>> 
>>> 
>>> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01988-9?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20190627&utm_source=nature_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190627&sap-outbound-id=F6879643729B698E3E09146A03F27DA843F58E1B&mkt-key=005056B0331B1ED782EEA4D8C7ECAFA3
>>> 
>>> 
>>> open access
>>> 
>>> (Note the cost and that it may take 6 mo of supercomputer time to analyze
>>> the data from 5 sq m.  Also doesn't say how deep it can image or how image
>>> degrades with depth.)
>>> 
>>> Cheers,  Doug
>>> --
>>> Douglas Fenner
>>> Ocean Associates, Inc. Contractor
>>> NOAA Fisheries Service
>>> Pacific Islands Regional Office
>>> Honolulu
>>> and:
>>> Consultant
>>> PO Box 7390
>>> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>>> 
>>> A call to climate action  (Science editorial)
>>> 
>>> https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6443/807?utm_campaign=toc_sci-mag_2019-05-30&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2840296
>>> 
>>> New book "The Uninhabitable Earth"  First sentence: "It is much, much
>>> worse
>>> than you think."
>>> Read first (short) chapter open access:
>>> 
>>> https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/read-a-chapter-from-the-uninhabitable-earth-a-dire-warning-on-climate-change
>>> 
>>> Want a Green New Deal?  Here's a better one.
>>> 
>>> https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/want-a-green-new-deal-heres-a-better-one/2019/02/24/2d7e491c-36d2-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.a3fc8337cbf8
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> 
>> --
>> Nicole L. Crane
>> Faculty, Cabrillo College
>> Natural and Applied Sciences
>> www.cabrillo.edu/~ncrane
>> 
>> Senior Conservation Scientist, Project co-lead
>> One People One Reef
>> onepeopleonereef.ucsc.edu
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> -- 
> Douglas Fenner
> Ocean Associates, Inc. Contractor
> NOAA Fisheries Service
> Pacific Islands Regional Office
> Honolulu
> and:
> Consultant
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
> 
> A call to climate action  (Science editorial)
> https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6443/807?utm_campaign=toc_sci-mag_2019-05-30&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2840296 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6443/807?utm_campaign=toc_sci-mag_2019-05-30&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2840296>
> 
> New book "The Uninhabitable Earth"  First sentence: "It is much, much worse
> than you think."
> Read first (short) chapter open access:
> https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/read-a-chapter-from-the-uninhabitable-earth-a-dire-warning-on-climate-change <https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/read-a-chapter-from-the-uninhabitable-earth-a-dire-warning-on-climate-change>
> 
> Want a Green New Deal?  Here's a better one.
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/want-a-green-new-deal-heres-a-better-one/2019/02/24/2d7e491c-36d2-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.a3fc8337cbf8 <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/want-a-green-new-deal-heres-a-better-one/2019/02/24/2d7e491c-36d2-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.a3fc8337cbf8>
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