Research Project
Full description The goal of the XL Catlin Seaview Survey Project was to conduct rapid, detailed yet globally distributed scientific surveys of coral reefs to support research and conservation. The focus was on surveying shallow reefs, typically located at 10 m depth, around the world: 860 transects across the Atlantic (mainly Caribbean), the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Great Barrier Reef, and South-East Asia were surveyed from 2012-2018. A custom camera and sensor system (the "SVII") was developed in order to collect high quality photographs of the reef at regular intervals along sampling transects that are usually 1.5-2.0 km in length. The system also collected camera altitude from the reef substrate and GPS data to assist in the processing of the photographs and assessment of coral reefs.