Why This Matters
Whether you're tracking invasive species in a harbour, monitoring a reef, counting birds in a wetland, or documenting anything worth recording at a specific place and time — the challenge is always the same: how do you capture it accurately, tie it to a location, and share it in a way that's actually useful?
This toolset grew out of our own marine survey work in the Hauraki Gulf, where Caulerpa and other invasive species pose a serious and ongoing threat to coastal ecosystems. Early detection changes everything — but our coastline is vast, and no single organisation can monitor it alone.
The same problem — and the same solution — applies anywhere in the world. Community members, researchers, schools, and conservation groups all need simple, affordable tools that produce credible, documented results. We built this for the moana, and we share it freely for anyone who needs it.
How It Works
The Dropcam Survey System is designed to be simple, affordable, and accessible. You don't need specialist equipment or a science background — just a camera, a phone, and a willingness to look.
Record
Lower the dropcam and record video while your phone logs the GPS track. Any action camera with a live timestamp watermark and a waterproof case will do.
Review
Load your video and GPX into the viewer. Sync the footage to the map, mark sightings, define transects, and outline areas of interest.
Report
Export a validated survey package — cover PDF with satellite map, Excel workbook, annotated images, and GPS track — ready to share.
Who This Is For
This tool was designed as a community platform. It works for anyone who wants to record sightings of anything at a specific location — underwater, on land, or anywhere in between — using gear they already own.
- Marine surveyors and dive clubs — invasive species monitoring, reef health, and biosecurity reporting.
- Conservation and ecology groups — bird counts, plant surveys, habitat mapping, pest monitoring.
- Iwi, hapū, and community groups — protecting mahinga kai, cultural sites, and local environments.
- Schools and kura — hands-on citizen science in real environments that matter to students.
- Researchers and councils — structured, repeatable surveys with exportable, shareable results.
- Anyone curious about their environment — if you want to document what you see and where you saw it, this is for you.
The Dropcam
The dropcam housing is 3D-printed, open-source, and fits any standard action camera (GoPro, DJI Action, SJCam, or similar) in its own waterproof case. The only requirement is that the camera can burn a live timestamp watermark onto the video — this is how we sync footage to GPS. Schools, libraries, and makerspaces are ideal places to get a housing printed if you don't have access to a 3D printer.
The STL file can be downloaded directly here. A separate Build Guide covers printing, assembly, weighting, and rigging.
AI-Assisted Detection
The viewer includes an optional AI object detection pipeline. When enabled, sighting images are run through detection models during processing — results are drawn on the images and summarised in the exported report.
We currently have a working model for kina (sea urchin) detection. A Caulerpa model is in active development, trained on real dropcam footage from New Zealand waters. The more survey images we can learn from, the better the models become at spotting invasive species early — and every contribution helps.
Detection is completely optional. If the model isn't available or the toggle is off, everything else works exactly the same.
Your Data, Your Control
The viewer runs entirely in your browser. Your video and GPS files stay on your computer — nothing is uploaded until you choose to export. When you do, your data is processed and returned to you. We don't store your information — other than images you choose to send to us to help train the AI detection models. You decide who receives the final output.
Get Started
Dropcam Telemetry Viewer
Load your video and GPX, sync to the map, mark sightings, and export your survey.
Open ViewerInstructions & Guide
Full operating guide — GPS recording, syncing, sightings, boundaries, and reporting.
Read the GuideNote: These files are unrelated to each other. The video timestamp is not real, the location is not a real survey site, and no actual sightings were recorded — they exist purely so you can explore the tool hands-on.
⬇ Download Sample GPX ⬇ Download Sample Video
For Those Who Love the Outdoors
If you fish, hunt, dive, or boat — you already know things most people don't. You notice when something has changed. That knowledge is genuinely valuable, and right now a lot of it risks going unrecorded.
Good people have done extraordinary work to protect and restore what we have. What remains is worth fighting for, even if it's not quite as our grandparents remember. This tool is a simple way to contribute to that effort while you're already out there doing what you love.
Kaitiakitanga
Guardianship of the environment is not the job of any one person or organisation. It's something we do together — with care, with consistency, and with respect for the places that sustain us all.
This system was built from that principle. It's open source, free to use, and designed to work anywhere in the world — from the harbours of Aotearoa to wetlands, forests, reefs, and coastlines wherever people choose to look closely and document what they find.
Every careful survey adds to the picture. Every early detection gives the environment a better chance. Every contribution — no matter how small — matters.
Mauri ora. Thank you for being part of the solution.