Google has partnered with marine biologist Steve Simpson and marine ecologist Mary Shodipo to launch a new project aimed at repopulating coral reefs. The project, a Google Arts & Culture experiment called “Calling in our Corals”, is asking the public to help train artificial intelligence (AI) to recognise aquatic wildlife sounds, with the hope that the AI can be used to automate conservation efforts. Climate change, overfishing, and pollution have caused coral reefs to decline at an alarming rate. The high water temperatures caused by climate change cause coral to release symbiotic algae that make them more prone to disease and death. The rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere also acidify the ocean, further damaging the reefs.
The project aims to help improve the monitoring of marine wildlife activity, and also to help restore the reefs. The researchers have found that playing back sounds from healthy reefs using underwater speakers in damaged habitats can attract new fish and other underwater species to conserved reefs or those that have been damaged due to human activity. The team’s recordings were made at ten reefs located in countries including Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, the US, Panama, and Sweden.
To contribute, users are asked to open a browser window and listen to underwater recordings made with an underwater mic, differentiating between the high-pitched sounds of feeding shrimp and the lower-pitched sounds of fish. They are then asked to tap an on-screen button when they believe they hear fish. If enough people contribute, the data should help automate conservation efforts. According to Simpson, “there are too many recordings for one person to sit down and listen to, and that’s where you come in. We need your help, and the help of others like you, to form a listening collective. Your data will then be used to train computers to listen for fish sounds automatically.”
The project’s creators stress that even one three-minute session can make a difference, and the more time users spend on the project, the more they can contribute to a good cause. Although it may not be peak entertainment, it is at least as enjoyable as other time-wasting browser games that do not contribute to real-world efforts. The project has the potential to raise awareness about a critical, often-ignored aspect of our changing planet.
