Inkfish conducts surveys using video-based approaches to quantify marine organisms and habitats in environments ranging from shallow tropical reefs to Antarctica and the deepest locations on Earth. Our work integrates mono- and stereo-BRUVs with observations from human-occupied submersibles, generating semi-quantitative data using MaxN alongside behavioural and biodiversity assessments.
Inkfish works collaboratively with local nations, incorporating scientists and locals into voyages and co-designing sampling frameworks to ensure locally relevant outcomes. Across these partnerships, video-based systems have been deployed in diverse and remote regions, producing datasets on species presence, size structure, and assemblage composition, including observations of poorly known and potentially novel taxa. Human-occupied submersible platforms, including 1000 m-rated vehicles and full-ocean-depth systems such as DSSV Bakunawa, extend observational capacity into hadal environments, contributing both quantitative video data and in situ scientific observations.
Operating across the full ocean depth range presents substantial technical, operational, and experimental design challenges. Deep deployments often require adaptation from standardised shallow-water protocols, including extended soak times, integration of additional instrumentation, and flexible sampling strategies, complicating cross-study comparability.
This talk will share experiences, methods, and insights from applying video-based tools across extreme environments, and explore challenges in standardisation, data integration, and emerging analytical approaches, including artificial intelligence.