Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

GoPro for a Cause Spotlight: Restoring Coral Reefs with Sustainable Surf + SeaTrees

19/04/2023

In recognition of Earth Month, were catching up with Sustainable Surf-a nonprofit that harnesses the power and appeal of surf culture to protect ocean health and reverse climate change. They combine the power of the surf community with science to support global environmental programs like SeaTrees and the ECOBOARD Project.

In 2021, we highlighted SeaTrees' kelp forest restoration project, which you can learn about here. Today, were sharing updates on the SeaTrees program. SeaTrees directly supports communities and scientists who protect and regenerate blue carbon coastal ecosystems by planting mangrove trees, restoring kelp forests, coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and conserving coastal watersheds.

SeaTrees leads projects in the United States, Mexico, Indonesia, Kenya, Australia, Cambodia, Colombia, Portugal and Guinea-Bissau-and their goal is to support 100 blue carbon projects by 2030.

In Bali, Indonesia, SeaTrees plants coral and restores the coral reef system around Nusa Penida Island-working alongside their project partner, Ocean Gardner, and local divers and community members.

Haley Haggerstone, Sustainable Surfs Partnerships Manager, takes us behind the scenes in Indonesia.

GoPro: Tell us about your work in Bali.

Haley: Were restoring the degraded coral reefs on Nusa Penida Island in Bali, Indonesia. The conservation of these ecosystems is essential to coastal protection, scientific research, fishing, eco-tourism and more. Restoring these reefs will provide habitat for more than 500 species of fish, many of which are currently considered vulnerable to extinction.

This work is vital because coral reefs are threatened globally, and weve already lost about half of the worlds coral reefs over the last 30 years. More than 60% of the remaining reefs are threatened by human activity, with Indonesia being one of the largest areas of vulnerability.

Known as the rainforests of the sea, coral reefs are the largest living structures on earth and support 25% of marine life.

How are you using GoPro cameras in this work?

Before using GoPro cameras in our coral reef restoration projects, we could not accurately monitor the progress of the restoration work and the long-term survival of the coral. Traditional photogrammetry requires neutrally-buoyant DSLR camera rigs, which are too expensive and technically challenging for the local restoration partners to operate and maintain.

Working with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, we developed a new technique to create 3D models of the coral reef. Using GoPro cameras mounted on an inexpensive, lightweight rig, its easy for our divers to swim along the reef and capture images of the restoration sites. Scientists at Scripps process these images to create a 3D model using 10 billion data points and use this model to remotely evaluate and monitor the success of the reef restoration project.

Using GoPro cameras in this way has the potential to revolutionize coral reef restoration science by unlocking coral reef mapping at scale around the world.

How do you restore coral reefs?

We grow coral fragments in the shallow waters of the Ped Acropora Coral Nursery. These fragments grow and bond to biodegradable ropes until they are large enough to be transplanted to the restoration sites. This innovative technique, adapted from a traditional Balinese method used to grow seaweed, ensures that the coral fragments will grow to be appropriately spaced and the ecosystem will thrive in the years to come.

When we cultivate the coral, a snorkeling team of Balinese men and women from the local fishing community transplants the newly grown fragments onto the reef, carefully dropping them at the restoration site on the ocean floor and securing them in place.

Next, divers prepare the restoration site by hammering stakes into the ground to secure the rope lines in place on the reef without the fragments touching the ocean floor until they grow large enough to withstand the harsh rubble environment below.

Planting these fragments amongst healthy reefs allows the ecosystem to thrive and helps marine life return to the area.

How is the local community involved in the project?

Ocean Gardener, our project partner, employs the local Balinese fishing community to restore the reef and monitor its regeneration until it can survive on its own. This work creates 26 jobs for local villagers and improves the livelihood of 100 people.

After divers and snorkelers plant the coral, the local community monitors the restoration and documents the reefs progress with GoPro cameras.

Is the program working?

Yes, the program is thriving. In 2021, we planted 6,000 fragments of coral, and in May 2022, we expanded the project to a new restoration site in Crystal Bay and are planting another 6,000 coral fragments.

How can the GoPro community help?

You can get involved with SeaTrees by going to our website and donating to plant a sea tree of your choice and taking direct action to plant a mangrove tree, a coral fragment, or restore kelp forests and coastal watersheds.

You can donate:

$25 to grow one piece of coral in Indonesia

$20 to restore 10 square feet of watershed in Hawaii

$10 to plant 10 mangrove trees in Kenya

$10 to plant 5 mangrove trees in Mexico

Follow SeaTrees on Sustainable Surfs social media channels: Instagram, facebook and Twitter.

GoPro for a Cause-our nonprofit partnership and donation program-supports eligible nonprofits to varying degrees with in-kind or cash donations and employee volunteer time. You can learn more about getting involved with GoPro for a Cause here.
LINK: https://gopro.com/en/gb/news/gopro-support-restoring-coral-reefs-seatr...
See more stories from gopro

Most recent headlines

01/04/2025

Inside USHER's Star-Studded Black Box' Event in London

USHER's London takeover is in full swing. After kicking off his sold-out run of shows at the O2 Arena to rave reviews, the R&B icon joined forces with Spoti...

01/04/2025

ST Engineering iDirect Launches New Excelerator Partner Program

Innovative program empowers partners with growth, efficiency and collaboration Herndon, Va., April 1, 2025 ST Engineering iDirect, a global leader in satelli...

01/04/2025

L3Harris Sets Date for First Quarter 2025 Earnings Release

MELBOURNE, Fla., April 1, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its first quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, Ap...

01/04/2025

Calrec Craft Interview: Aston Fearon, Sound Supervisor

Calrec Craft Interview: Aston Fearon, Sound Supervisor In this craft interview, Aston Fearon speaks to us about how his career in sound started, projects he'...

01/04/2025

Telestream Adds Support for intoPIX's JPEG XS Technology in PRISM

MONT-SAINT-GUIBERT, Belgium Telestream has integrated intoPIX's JPEG XS technology into Telestream's PRISM waveform monitors, which Telestream says will...

01/04/2025

Avid Accelerates Move to Cloud Production With AWS Agreement

BURLINGTON, Mass. Avid has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS), to deliver a cloud-based production framework that helps f...

01/04/2025

UFL Goes Global with DAZN Deal

LONDON and NEW YORK The United Football League (UFL) has signed a new global partnership with sports broadcaster DAZN to broadcast every game of the UFL's 2...

01/04/2025

Netflix Outlines Groundbreaking Effort to Streamline Global Production

In a groundbreaking bid to streamline and democratize the production process, Netflix has laid out how it is developing a new Media Production Suite, that t...

01/04/2025

Comcast Business Closes Nitel Acquisition

PHILADELPHIA Comcast Business has announced that it has completed its acquisition of Nitel, a U.S. managed services provider headquartered in Chicago, from inte...

01/04/2025

Research Veterans Launch New Analytics and Insights Platform Tenetic

NEW YORK A team of research industry veterans, led by Tod Johnson have launched a new consumer insights and analytics platform, Tenetic, that offers both local ...

01/04/2025

V-Nova Joins Access Advance HEVC Patent Pool - Reinforcin...

V-Nova, a leading provider of compression solutions, today announced its inaugural participation in a patent pool, joining the Access Advance HEVC Patent Pool. ...

01/04/2025

Cinnafilm To Unveil Tachyon LIVE at the 2025 NAB Show - R...

Cinnafilm, a global leader in video optimization solutions, today announced that it will launch Tachyon LIVE, its groundbreaking live IP standards and format co...

01/04/2025

HighField AI Partners with Vizrt to Augment Vizrt-based B...

HighField AI, an advanced AI-powered solution designed to automate repetitive tasks within the media production workflow, today announced that it will demonstra...

01/04/2025

Nimbra Edge enables simplified and smarter cloud media tr...

Globecast has expanded its use of Net Insight's Nimbra technology by deploying Nimbra Edge, significantly streamlining its media transport operations. This ...

01/04/2025

Broadpeak Launches Edgepeak

EdgePeak enables software architects and developers to design and build their own content delivery network (CDN) while reducing streaming costs, fighting video...

01/04/2025

Cinnafilm and NVIDIA Revolutionize AI-Powered Video Upcon...

Cinnafilm to preview the innovation at the 2025 NAB Show Cinnafilm, a global leader in video optimization, has collaborated with NVIDIA to unveil a groundbreak...

01/04/2025

Synamedia to showcase innovations that transform video se...

Leading video software provider Synamedia, will showcase its innovation-driven approach to solving the biggest challenges facing customers today and in the futu...

01/04/2025

AJA Debuts IP and 12G-SDI Innovations Ahead of NAB 2025

AJA Debuts IP and 12G-SDI Innovations Ahead of NAB 2025 Brie Clayton April 1, 2025 0 Comments New tools optimize media and entertainment and proAV wo...

01/04/2025

Bit Part Introduces bitbox mini, the Smallest and Lightest Solution for Ultra-Long Distance, Remote Camera Control

Bit Part Introduces bitbox mini, the Smallest and Lightest Solution for Ultra-Lo...

01/04/2025

IABM Unveils Bold Transformation at NAB Show, Prioritizing Member Value

IABM Unveils Bold Transformation at NAB Show, Prioritizing Member Value Brie Clayton April 1, 2025 0 Comments IABM is delivering a strategic transform...

01/04/2025

OOONA Introduces Multilingual QC Tool for Subtitling Workflows

OOONA Introduces Multilingual QC Tool for Subtitling Workflows Brie Clayton April 1, 2025 0 Comments See OOONA on booth W4209 at the NAB Show, Las Veg...

01/04/2025

Netflix Media Production Suite democratises access' to innovation

Adopting open standards, the solution aims to provide workflow standardisation, allowing for automation and other innovations across a diverse range of markets ...

01/04/2025

Best of Show Awards at 2025 NAB Show submissions close tomorrow

Submissions will be accepted up until 23:59 PST on 2nd April By Jenny Priestley Published: March 24, 2025 Updated: April 1, 2025 Submissions will be acc...

01/04/2025

TVBEurope April 2025 issue now available

The AI issue takes a look at how AI is reshaping broadcasting, including areas such as sports commentary and archiving and storage, plus we discover how Norways...

01/04/2025

John Wastcoat new senior director of partner development at TVU Networks

Joining the company with more than two decades of experience forging and scaling alliances in the industry, Wastcoats role will support TVUs strategic developme...

01/04/2025

Meet Rich Welsh, SMPTE's New President

At the beginning of the year, Rich Welsh, senior vice president with Deluxe, was appointed the new president of Society of Motion Picture and Television Enginee...

01/04/2025

Charter's Spectrum Adds AMC+ to Spectrum TV Select

STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter's Spectrum pay TV operations are continuing its previously announced strategy of adding more streaming services to its ...

01/04/2025

Sinclair and ONE Media Technologies Announce NAB Show Plans

HUNT VALLEY, Md. Sinclair, Inc. and its subsidiary, ONE Media Technologies, have announced that members of their leadership team will be participating in multip...

01/04/2025

Bus Stop Films' first feature Boss Cat to begin production in June

01 04 2025 - Media release Bus Stop Films' first feature Boss Cat to begin production in June Boss Cat cast (L-R): Olivia Hargroder, Penny Downie and Juli...

01/04/2025

PremiumBeat - Flexible, Unlimited Music For Creators

PremiumBeat - Flexible, Unlimited Music For Creators Brie Clayton March 31, 2025 0 Comments Back in November of 2024, PremiumBeat made a bold move tha...

01/04/2025

MLB 2025: TNT Sports Chooses Remote Production for MLB Tuesday,' Upgrades Control Rooms at Techwood

MLB 2025: TNT Sports Chooses Remote Production for MLB Tuesday,' Upgrades C...

01/04/2025

SVG All-Stars: Francisco Contreras, Executive Director, Field Operations, FOX Sports

SVG All-Stars: Francisco Contreras, Executive Director, Field Operations, FOX Sp...

01/04/2025

MILTON drones get a boost with Rohde & Schwarz SIGINT integration

MILTON drones get a boost with Rohde & Schwarz SIGINT integration Rohde & Schwarz and MILTON have partnered to integrate advanced signals intelligence technol...

01/04/2025

Rohde & Schwarz presents comprehensive R&S ELEKTRA portfolio for reproducible, standard-compliant EMC measurements

Rohde & Schwarz presents comprehensive R&S ELEKTRA portfolio for reproducible, s...

01/04/2025

NAB 2025: FOR-A America Introduces Fully Software-Based Switcher

Create Complex Compositions with Unlimited Layers with FOR-A MixBoard Powered by ClassX...

01/04/2025

Nara Deep Dive

Article courtesy of Digital Production Germany Read the article Digital Production Germany magazine editor, Bela Beier, recently talked to Nara's Steve Br...

01/04/2025

Light Iron integrates Nara

Article courtesy of Digital Media World Read the article Light Iron uses Nara to handle file navigation, content streaming and information sharing workflow ef...

01/04/2025

The making of Here AI, VFX and colour

Article courtesy of British Cinematographer Read the article DoP Don Burgess, VFX supervisor Kevin Baillie and colourist Maxine Gervais pulled their talents t...

01/04/2025

Krzysztof Polesiski chooses DiGiCo to power his immersive mixes

Polesi ski made a name for himself early in his career. Renowned for his attention to detail and ability to mix his creative and technical skills, Polesi ski st...

01/04/2025

2025-04-01

visionOS 2.4 is available today, bringing the first set of powerful Apple Intelligence features that help users communicate, write, and express themselves on Ap...

01/04/2025

DSTA and Thales Announce AI-Driven Co-Lab to Strengthen Singapore's Defence Systems

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and...

31/03/2025

Ready, set, Party Time!' SBS News empowers young voters with a new political podcast

Ready, set, Party Time!' SBS News empowers young voters with a new politica...

31/03/2025

Hitachi Announces Executive Changes (31.1.2024)

31 January, 2024 Company News Tokyo, January 31, 2024 - Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501) today announced the following executive changes to improve corporate value....

31/03/2025

L3Harris Completes Sale of Commercial Aviation Solutions Business to TJC for $800 Million

MELBOURNE, Fla., March 31, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has complete...

31/03/2025

L3Harris, Dutch Ministry of Defence Sign FOXTROT Long-Term Agreement

Vice Admiral Jan Willem Hartman, commander of the Dutch Materiel and IT Command, and Chris Aebli, President, Tactical Communications, L3Harris Technologies, sig...

31/03/2025

L3Harris UK to Optimize New Australian Hunter-class Frigates for Anti-Submarine Warfare

The L3Harris team visited HMS GLASGOW, the first T26 Global Combat Ship, current...

31/03/2025

Sinclair's KOMO, KUNS to Broadcast 33 Seattle Storm Games

SEATTLE As the WNBA prepares to kick off the 2025 season, the Seattle Storm WNBA team has announced a multi-year deal with Sinclair's KOMO and KUNS station...

31/03/2025

Digital Nirvana and Avid Partner to Enhance Media Product...

Digital Nirvana, a provider of leading-edge AI-powered media solutions, today announced a global Alliance Partnership with Avid to bring advanced AI metadata c...

31/03/2025

BeckTV Welcomes Kate Gazdic as Senior Procurement Special...

BeckTV, a premier systems integrator for the broadcast media industry, today announced that Kate Gazdic has joined the company as a senior procurement specialis...

31/03/2025

MainConcept Unveils Efficiency Gains for its HEVC Encoder...

MainConcept, a leading provider of video and audio codecs, has announced a series of key codec advancements that enable customers to realize significant time an...