Smart Oceans: Artificial Intelligence and Marine Biodiversity Governance

This lecture will discuss a new type of environmental governance that holds significant promise for marine biodiversity conservation.

About this event

This lecture by Dr. Karen Bakker will discuss a new type of environmental governance that holds significant promise for marine biodiversity conservation: AI-powered mobile marine protected areas (MMPAs). MMPAs have spatio-temporally mobile boundaries that change position as endangered fish migrate through the ocean. In order for MMPAs to responsively adapt to environmental variability, species mobility, and disturbance dynamics, a sophisticated AI-powered computational apparatus “Smart Oceans” is required, including machine learning algorithms, computer vision, and ecological informatics techniques used to analyze data from various sources (e.g. nano-satellites, drones, environmental sensor networks, digital bioacoustics, marine tags, deep sea UAVs). This talk will cover Smart Ocean’s digital tools and governance frameworks as well as recent applications with endangered bluefin tuna and endangered turtles. Do MMPAs achieve better biodiversity conservation outcomes than traditional static protected areas? Come to this session to find out!

This talk will not be recorded so please plan to attend in real time.