Post provided by Brooke Gibbons.

Marine scientists often rely on underwater cameras to survey seabed habitats, but traditional methods come with limitations—small fields of view, restricted coverage, and logistical constraints. Enter the Benthic Observation Survey System (BOSS): a new wide-field, self-righting drop-camera system that significantly expands our ability to survey and map the seafloor.

The Need for Better Benthic Surveys

Most existing platforms use downward or forward-facing cameras that capture a narrow slice of the marine environment. The BOSS system, introduced in our recent Methods in Ecology and Evolution paper, overcomes this by employing a four-camera setup with a combined 280° field of view. This allows for more comprehensive habitat mapping, increasing coverage up to 100m² per deployment.

What Makes BOSS Different?

– Wide-Angle Coverage: Traditional cameras cover ~1m² (downward) or ~25m² (forward). The BOSS extends this to ~100m², improving the representation of habitat.

–Stereo-Video Capability: The optional stereo-camera configuration allows for precise measurement of both benthic biota and habitat dimensions and allows the area of the sample to be calculated.

–Rapid, Self-Righting Deployment: Designed for efficiency, the BOSS can be quickly deployed and retrieved from various vessels in diverse marine conditions, and is designed to be handled like a lobster pot.

–Scalable for Large-Scale Monitoring and Input for habitat mapping: The system enables spatially balanced sampling designs, making it an ideal tool for monitoring marine parks and fisheries, and implementing environmental impact assessments and also groundtruthing habitat maps.

Putting BOSS to the Test

In collaboration with Parks Australia, we tested the BOSS in a no-take National Park Zone within the South-west Corner Marine Park, Australia, generating habitat maps over ~100km². The results demonstrated its effectiveness in capturing habitat heterogeneity at scales relevant to conservation and management.

In collaboration with Western Rock Lobster fishers and the Australian Government’s Fisheries Research Development Corporation, we used the wide-angle coverage of the BOSS to develop a new method for accurately mapping shallow and coastal marine habitats from satellite imagery. We demonstrated this method, published in the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, at representative areas across a 400km stretch of the Mid West coastline of Western Australia documenting habitats critical to Australia’s most valuable wild-caught fishery. Next we used the method developed with BOSS ground truthing to track change over the 35 years across  600 km, focusing on underwater vegetation crucial for lobster, and found satellite data could effectively track vegetation extent. Published in Science of the Total Environment, the research demonstrated how tracking changes in seagrass and macroalgae habitats can help predict future lobster populations.

Why It Matters

With growing concerns about marine biodiversity, climate change, and human impacts on ocean ecosystems, tools like the BOSS provide critical data to support decision-making. By improving accuracy and efficiency in benthic habitat mapping, we can better monitor and manage these vital environments.

Ocean Best Practice

In collaboration with the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program Marine and Coastal Hub, the BOSS will now contribute to Field Manuals for Monitoring Australia’s Marine Waters, supporting the national-scale monitoring and observing of Australia’s marine environment, ensuring that data collected at different times and places across Australia are directly comparable, while also connecting to global initiatives through the Ocean Best Practices System.

Get Involved

Want to learn more? Check out our full paper here, and reach out if you’re interested in applying BOSS in your research!

How do you see BOSS changing the way we survey marine habitats? Let us know in the comments!

Post edited by Sthandiwe Nomthandazo Kanyile