Getting up close and personal: The need to immerse autonomous vehicles in coral reefs

Coral reefs are facing a range of cumulative impacts and pressures and are amongst the first major ecosystems to be impacted by climate change. In order to understand and manage these systems we need much improved monitoring tools. The current best effort diver based systems in developed countries only monitor a few percent of the reefs within their area of control, while in many developing areas this figure is significantly lower. One solution is the development of cost-effective Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) that are able to overcome the current limitations of using divers (depth, endurance, safety and costs) to increase our knowledge of reefs, especially remote and deep reefs. While some AUVs are approaching the level of performance that would be usable, there are a number of factors that limit their use. This paper describes the type of transformational change required to develop new tools, not just as an evolution of existing systems, but utilizing expertise from a range of domains to deliver a revolution in how shallow water complex systems are monitored. In conjunction with advances in the platforms available there needs to be co-investment in image processing pipelines to give end-to-end knowledge solutions that provide outcomes to scientists and managers. Finally, delivering transformational outcomes will require a new way of working and a change to how projects are funded, managed and delivered. Coral reefs are managed by developed and developing nations alike, with countries like the USA, Australia, England (via the British Indian Ocean Territory) and France (via New Caledonia) managing approximately 20% of the world's reefs via systems of marine parks and protected areas. It is incumbent on developed economies to develop and transfer to other reef custodians the tools required to help sustain coral reefs into the future.