Citizen science project, Citizens of the Reef, is calling on people across the world to explore over 80,000 images captured from remote and unexplored regions of the Great Barrier Reef to create the largest-ever reef dataset.

The conservation initiative has allowed any citizen to upload imagery of the Great Barrier Reef online. As part of this, in December 2025, a mother and daughter team of citizen scientists discovered the largest documented coral colony in the world.

Now the project is calling on volunteers to analyse this enormous data set of images captured by divers, snorkellers, Traditional Owners, tourists and scientists in order to build one of the most comprehensive datasets ever assembled in reef conservation.

In the last week alone, participants from 138 countries have already begun making their way through the database.

Virtual volunteers help to assess coral cover, identify key coral types and coral bleaching across hundreds of surveyed reefs.

By combining this human analysis with AI programming, the organisation has said The Great Reef Census achieves scientific accuracy levels comparable to expert scientists, and makes everyday people a critical part of the scientific process.

This project comes at a time when reefs are facing increasing pressure from rising ocean temperatures and mass bleaching events. From 1 January 2023 to 30 March 2025, bleaching-level heat stress impacted 84% of the world’s reefs, with 82 countries, territories and economies suffering damage.

By rapidly analysing this dataset, scientists can better understand how the Great Barrier Reef is responding, and identify which reefs have the greatest potential to survive and recover.

The organisation has said this will allow a better understanding of reef health, and guide the decisions set to shape its protection.

The Great Reef Census is expanding beyond Australia, with datasets and pilots underway in Hawai’i, the Red Sea and the Coral Triangle.

“What we’re seeing here is people stepping in and taking action,” said Andy Ridley, CEO of Citizens of the Reef. 

“This isn’t about waiting for change anymore; it’s about people contributing to it. The scale of this dataset gives us a real opportunity to make a difference, and people are already getting involved,” he added.

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