Marine Debris Survey Images from Coral Reefs at Pearl and Hermes Atoll, 2018 and 2021

NOAA Fisheries collected Structure from Motion photographs of derelict fishing nets entangled with coral reefs at Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The dataset includes 'before', 'after', and 'control' images from 2018, with follow-up surveys in 2021 to relocate and reimage a subset of the original sites. Photographs were taken within permanent 3 x 3 meter plots during in-water swim surveys conducted by snorkelers.

Use Cases

• Assessing coral reef damage and recovery based on 'before' and 'after' removal imagery.
• Comparing impacted sites to nearby control sites based on the paired study design.
• Analyzing changes in benthic habitat over a three-year period using the 2018 and 2021 follow-up images.
• Developing computer vision models for detecting marine debris in underwater imagery.

Strengths

• Includes temporally matched 'before' and 'after' imagery for the same 3x3 meter plots.
• Follows a paired study design with control sites established >50 meters from impact sites.
• Contains data from two distinct survey missions in 2018 and 2021, allowing for temporal analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Only a subset of 2018 sites (12 'after', 8 'control') were successfully relocated in 2021.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Photographs collected using a Structure from Motion approach during in-water swim surveys by snorkelers.

Time Range

2018 and 2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-14 22:59:02.444028; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Central Pacific Ocean