Join the challenge

Over the next months, we will organise different research challenges for the Koster Seafloor Observatory.

In our first challenge, you will need to identify the fauna of rocky walls in the deep waters of Kosterhavet National Park.

This includes beautiful anemones stretching their tentacles into the water current, colourful clams glued to rocks, and spiny crabs waving their claws at the camera.

Deeplet sea anemone.
Kare Telnes / Seawater.no

Different workflows

The Koster Seafloor Observatory 2.0 provides three different workflows.

Beginner’s workflow

In the Beginner’s workflow, you will use a list of 20 different animal groups to classify underwater videos. Use this workflow to learn how to recognize a sea cucumber, what is the behaviour of shrimp, or the differences between a sea anemone from a sea pen.

Advanced workflow

In the Advanced workflow, you will use a list of 60 species to classify underwater videos. Use this workflow and the updated field guides to recognise most of the common species found in the Kosterhavets National Park.

Image annotation workflow

In the image annotation workflow, you will have to tag the location of specific species in underwater photos. Drawing rectangles around each animal you will provide models with training information to automatically identify the species in thousands of hours of footage.

Desmophyllum pertusum.
Tomas Lundälv and Lisbeth Jonsson / Kosterhavest National Park

Assignments for students

The project also offers three educational activities designed for school classes and basic university courses in marine biology.

We recommend working in groups so that students can help each other explore and learn about the unique Swedish marine fauna.

All guides, identification keys, and assignments are both in Swedish and English.