Australia holds vast volumes of marine imagery collected through decades of government and research programs, yet much of this information remains fragmented, inaccessible, or difficult to reuse. Using case studies from the Australian Antarctic Division and CSIRO, this presentation explores how SQUIDLE+ is working with contributors to liberate marine imagery data from disconnected archives and transform it into FAIR, research-ready digital assets that support open science and marine management.
Marine imagery from ROVs, autonomous platforms, BRUVs, and towed systems is rapidly increasing in scale and complexity, creating challenges for storage, annotation, quality assurance, and publication. SQUIDLE+ addresses these challenges through cloud-based digital research infrastructure that supports scalable imagery ingestion, annotation, AI-assisted analysis, and interoperable publication workflows across institutions.
Through collaborations with research partners, SQUIDLE+ is enabling legacy and contemporary imagery datasets to be standardised, curated, and integrated into broader marine data ecosystems including Integrated Marine Observing System and Australian Ocean Data Network. This presentation highlights the infrastructure, workforce, and workflows required to operationalise open marine imagery at scale, demonstrating how coordinated digital systems can unlock the long-term scientific value of Australia’s marine observations.