What if the best tools for saving coral reefs weren’t locked behind paywalls or technical expertise?
What if a diver in a small island nation could analyze their reefs with the same level of analytical power as a scientist in a world-class lab? Well, that’s no longer a “what if”, it’s happening now.
Coral Restoration Foundation™ has officially launched CeruleanAI, a groundbreaking platform that is already being used by restoration teams around the world to monitor reefs in real time, using nothing more than a camera, a laptop, and an internet connection.
“Until now, monitoring restoration sites meant weeks of work by trained experts using expensive software and heavy computing power,” said Alex Neufeld, Science Program Manager at CRF™. “CeruleanAI does it in minutes. This puts the best available science directly into the hands of anyone working to save coral reefs anywhere.”
CeruleanAI is democratizing access to the best available technologies for reef monitoring. From large NGOs to grassroots teams in remote regions, users around the world are already uploading images of their restoration sites to CeruleanAI and getting back detailed data that once required weeks of processing. With a few clicks, they can see which corals are thriving, where reef structures are eroding, and how restoration efforts are progressing over time. The results are fast, reliable, and, most importantly, actionable.
While the platform was developed by CRF™ in Florida, it was always meant to serve the global restoration community. Its pricing model ensures broad accessibility, and the goal is clear: scale up coral restoration everywhere, not just where resources are abundant.
“This is about preventing gatekeeping in conservation,” said Neufeld. “Coral reefs don’t have time for us to be siloed, we need to be sharing resources, techniques, lessons and more. Every team restoring coral deserves access to the best available tools for the job. CeruleanAI makes that possible.”
CeruleanAI is also constantly improving. As more users upload imagery, the platform learns, becoming smarter and more accurate—able to identify more coral species, recognize nuanced habitat changes, and support even more diverse reef systems.
“Understanding what’s happening beneath the surface is the critical first step in designing effective interventions,” Neufeld said. “We can’t effectively restore what we can’t measure, what we can’t see clearly. CeruleanAI is putting that clarity into everyone’s hands.”
To learn more about CeruleanAI, visit www.coralrestoration.org/cerulean.
Written by: Alice Grainger, CRF Director of Creative Strategy
