Marine Imaging Workshop 2026

Advancing Global Ocean Observation

May 19–21, 2026
Gibraltar

Programme

All sessions take place at the Sunborn Hotel, Gibraltar, unless otherwise noted. Times are local (CEST, UTC+2).

📄 Full Programme (PDF) 📄 Poster Lightning Talk Schedule (PDF)

Monday, 18 May 2026 — Pre-Conference

Time Event
16:30 Pickup from Sunborn
17:00–19:00 Icebreaker — University of Gibraltar (Europa Point)
19:15 Transport leaves Europa Point

Tuesday, 19 May 2026 — Conference Day 1

Time Speaker Talk / Event
08:30–09:30 Registration & coffee (light breakfast)
09:30–09:45 MIW2026 — Opening
Session 1: Image Capture & Processing for Marine Research
09:45–10:00 Mojtaba Masoudi Best practices for image processing in marine biodiversity workflows
10:00–10:15 Fanny Girard Hidden in Plain Sight: Unlocking the potential of publicly available video data to increase our knowledge of biodiversity in the deep sea
10:15–10:30 Daphne Cuvelier Detect the undetected: First observations of fluorescence in the hydrothermal vent organisms of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and its potential for automated image analysis
10:30–10:45 Emma Poliakova Automated pre-processing of large underwater ROV datasets for 3D photogrammetry
10:45–11:00 Joost Daniels Adaptive sampling of midwater animals using long range autonomous underwater vehicles with a multi-camera imaging payload
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
Session 1 (continued): Image Capture & Processing for Marine Research
11:30–11:45 Michele Grimaldi From Surface to Depth: A Benchmark and Cross-Domain Approach to Recover 3D Reconstructions
11:45–12:00 Tobias Ferreira Paidiverpy: A Python framework for reproducible image processing pipelines, aimed at generating analysis-ready image datasets
12:00–12:15 Dhugal Lindsay Imaging approaches for construction of digital holotypes: matching tools to taxon
Session 2: Data-Driven Ocean Science — Artificial Intelligence in Marine Science
12:15–12:30 Laura Weihl Uncovering Anomalous Events for Marine Environmental Monitoring via Visual Anomaly Detection
12:30–12:45 Davide Brembilla Unlocking Legacy Marine Image Annotations to improve AI Models for Benthic Fauna Classification
12:45–13:00 Rylan Command Optimizing an image annotation workflow using AI: practical guidance for applying pre-trained object detection models to seafloor imagery data
13:00–14:00 Lunch
Session 2 (continued): Data-Driven Ocean Science — Artificial Intelligence in Marine Science
14:00–14:15 Ada Carter Long-Term Ecological Patterns from Automated Species Detection at the Mothra Hydrothermal Field, NE Pacific
14:15–14:30 David Price Assessing exploited intertidal fishery resources across complex coastal terrain using 3D photogrammetry
14:30–14:45 Joseph Marlow 3D photogrammetry and deep-learning deliver accurate estimates of epibenthic biomass
14:45–15:00 Enrique Montes Assessing seasonal variability in the biogeography of planktonic communities in south Florida, USA, by merging in vivo plankton imaging observations with dynamic satellite seascapes
15:00–15:30 Coffee break
15:30–15:45 Alejandra Mejía-Saenz From GoPro videos to automated seafloor megafauna identification: An end-to-end pipeline and lessons learned
15:45–16:00 Meike Nienaber Increasing Robustness for Underwater Image Matching via Rotation Invariance
16:00–16:15 Kevin Barnard Scaling Marine Image Annotations with AI-enabled, Human-In-the-Loop Pipelines
16:15–17:30 ⚡ Lightning talks: Posters
  1. Lonny Lundsten
  2. Katleen Robert
  3. Benedetta Zoe Donelli
  4. Ahmet Faruk Semerci
  5. Jennifer Durden
  6. Gavin Donohue
  7. Kelsey Archer Barnhill
  8. Cameron Trotter
  9. Filippo Varini
  10. Raphaela Neves
  11. Eleanor Cross
  12. Judith Fischer
  13. Nancy Jacobsen Stout
  14. Heather Doig
  15. Esther Marcayata-Vaca
  16. John Halpin
  17. Scott Brown

Wednesday, 20 May 2026 — Conference Day 2 / Workshops

Time Speaker Talk / Event
08:30–09:30 Registration & coffee (light breakfast)
Session 2 (continued): Data-Driven Ocean Science — Artificial Intelligence in Marine Science
09:30–09:45 Gaby Kourie Human-and-AI-in-the-Loop Marine Image Annotation in the BIIGLE online tool
09:45–10:00 David Moffat Transferring a YOLOv8 Benthic Species Detection Model to New Sites
10:00–10:15 Antonio Al Makdissi State of the art of Vision-Language Models and Multimodal Integration for Advanced Semantic Interpretation in Marine Imaging
10:15–10:30 Patricia Schöntag A Constellation Matching Approach to Increase Robustness of Underwater Image Matching
10:30–10:45 Chloe Game Enhancing automated image analysis of vulnerable seabed communities with environmental context conditioning
10:45–11:00 ⚡ Lightning talks: Workshops
  1. Megan Cromwell
  2. Evangelos Alevizos
  3. Kerry Howell
  4. Ariell Friedman
  5. Kevin Barnard
  6. Katharine Bigham
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
Workshop Sessions
11:30–13:00 Workshop Session 1
13:00–14:00 Lunch
14:00–15:30 Workshop Session 2
15:30–16:00 Coffee break
16:00–17:00 ⚡ Lightning talks: Posters
  1. Kaarel Kaspar Räis
  2. Giovanna Sainz
  3. Giulia La Bianca
  4. Judith Fischer
  5. Beatriz Naranjo-Elizondo
  6. Jennifer Durden
  7. Fergal McGrath
  8. Kevin Barnard
  9. João Balsa
  10. Tiffany Cunanan
  11. Henrique Mourato
  12. Carolin Zofall
  13. Filippo Pandolfi
  14. Craig Fergusson
  15. Elizabeth Hasan
  16. Emmeline Broad
  17. Gerrit Meiners
  18. Kea Witting
  19. Avery Rose
  20. Kristopher Carrigan
  21. Nils Piechaud
17:15–19:15 Poster Session

Thursday, 21 May 2026 — Conference Day 3

Time Speaker Talk / Event
08:30–09:15 Registration & coffee (light breakfast)
Session 3: Ocean Data Management
09:15–09:30 Corinne Bassin From Seafloor to Science: An End-to-End Imaging and Annotation Pipeline for ROV SuBastian
09:30–09:45 Munsif Ali AI4DeepSea: Development of Artificial Intelligence for the study of communities in deep marine environments
09:45–10:00 Ariell Friedman Squidle+ updates: New and Improved Workflows, Real-Time Field Analysis, Multi-Media Annotation and AI Collaboration
10:00–10:15 Carolina Ventura-Costa FAIR & Open Marine imaging data workflow: from deep-sea exploration planning to data reuse
10:15–10:30 Jonny Savage A Federated Image Brokerage Service for Scalable Biodiversity Analysis from Marine Imagery
10:30–11:00 Coffee break
Session 4: Advancing Biology through Imaging — Marine Applications
11:00–11:15 Christine Morrow An introduction to the Marine Biodiversity Data Portal – NI
11:15–11:30 Alexa Parimbelli Multi-locus species delimitation as a tool to inform image-based identification of deep-sea Antipatharia
11:30–11:45 Knut Mehler Integrating Optical and Acoustic Imaging to Improve Benthic Habitat Mapping in the Wadden Sea
11:45–12:00 Awantha Dissanayake Observation Per Unit Effort (OPUE): Standardising MaxN-Based Relative Abundance in Remote Underwater Video Surveys
12:00–12:15 Rob Harbour Integrating eDNA Metaprobes with Camera Sled Seafloor Imagery in U.K. Offshore MPA Monitoring: A Pilot Study
12:15–12:30 Melanie Stott Integrating video analysis and eDNA data to improve taxonomic identification and biodiversity assessments
12:30–12:45 Catherine Borremans Making visible the invisible: using quantitative imaging and semi-automatic annotation for the identification of microscopic infauna
12:45–13:45 Lunch
Session 4 (continued): Advancing Biology through Imaging — Marine Applications
13:45–14:00 Jaime Davies Assessing the impacts of litter on deep-sea ecosystem for conservation
14:00–14:15 Charlene Erasito Exploring Hidden Worlds: Multiscale Characterisation of Benthic Biodiversity and Mesopelagic Community Abundance on Stylaster Seamount in the Natural Park of the Coral Sea, New Caledonia
14:15–14:30 Tom Morgan Beyond Accuracy: Enhancing Seafloor Mapping through Multimodal Fusion and uncertainty aware machine learning
14:30–14:45 Marc Allentoft-Larsen ML-Assisted Analysis of Extended-Duration Imaging Using Long-Range AUV: Application to Siphonophore Diel Vertical Migration
14:45–15:00 Whitney Goodell Illuminating Deep-Sea Biodiversity: Multi-Tool Deep Sea Imaging and a Pacific-Wide Synthesis of Nautilus Observations
15:00–15:15 Filippo Varini Towards Trustworthy AI for Deep-Sea Video Analysis: A Human-in-the-Loop, Foundation-Model–Based Pipeline and Its Ecological Evaluation
15:15–15:30 Kakani Katija FathomVerse: Gaming for Ocean Exploration
15:30–16:00 Coffee break
16:00–17:00 Discussion Session
17:00–17:30 Close of Conference
20:00–22:00 Conference Dinner — Aurora Ballroom, Sunborn Hotel

Friday, 22 May 2026 — Field Trips

Field trips depart from the Sunborn Hotel. See the Conference Outline page for full details and booking information.

Time Event Details
10:00–12:30 Rock Tour — £40 per person Pickup from Sunborn (Ocean Village)
Various Dolphin Adventure — £20 per person Book directly with Dolphin Adventures, mention University of Gibraltar

Contact

For more information email SMES@unigib.edu.gi