What We Do

SeaBee tests infrastructure and equipment to refine and develop the infrastructure capabilities in a real-world setting. The four applications below show the latest results.

We collect data on the ground, use traditional benchmark methods, new technology and drones to validate SeaBee’s drone products and further improve their automated generation. SeaBee uses existing national data collection programs to support field campaigns in areas such as the monitoring of coastal ecosystems, seabirds, marine mammals and surface water applications.

Seabee’s practical applications are often linked to the objective of providing ground-truth data for drone product validation. However, there is also close collaboration to produce validation protocols for research, mapping, and monitoring applications.

Read the 2023 – 2024 Annual Report here.

Water Quality

This application activity will start in 2023 and focus on water mass characteristics, including water transparency (relevant to the topic of ocean darkening), harmful algal blooms, and more ...

Coastal Habitat Mapping

This SeaBee application focuses on developing protocol for habitats in the coastal zone, including seafloor substrate types, subsurface vegetation (such as seagrass, seaweed, and kelp), and other management-relevant species, such as blue mussels, the invasive Pacific oyster, and opportunistic turf algae ...

Monitoring coastal seal colonies

The fieldwork for SeaBee’s marine mammal application testing starts officially in 2023, but drones have been used to count seals in Norway for the last 5-6 years with a normal (Red Green Blue/RGB) camera ...

Counting seabird populations

Until now, NINA has been mapping and annotating bird nests, mostly of black-headed gulls, in the Oslofjord. A joint survey with IMR was initially planned in 2020 to conduct fieldwork relating to seabirds and mammals but this was not possible due to COVID-19 ...