Corals are dying, they need your help.
Corals in the Caribbean are facing extinction.
Reef-building stony corals are collapsing, triggering a cascade of biodiversity loss.
"What am I doing to fill my part in the conservation of the ocean?"
You can help provide a voice for corals.
adopt-a-coral in 3 steps
Choose a coral
Find a coral you care about near a distinctive reef feature (mooring, rock, sponge).
Capture & scan
Record a short video (30–60 sec) swimming around it. Use a free app (Luma or KIRI) to create a 3D model.
Upload & share
Upload your 3D model to our community dataset. It becomes open data for research and conservation.
Track coral change over time
Scan the same coral every few months. Watch it recover, bleach, or grow. Each scan reveals a new chapter in its story.
Same coral, three scans across time showing recovery from bleaching.
Community 3D coral library
If you can't scan the same coral over time, contribute a single scan to our growing open-source library.
Scanned corals
All 3D models are analyzed by an open-source community of biologists and engineers for coral health, AI research, and conservation insights.
Suggested workflow
Step 1: Capture video with scale reference
Place a scale bar or ruler next to your coral. Record a short video (30–60 seconds) from multiple angles.
💡 Note: These are real underwater video samples (MOV format, ~40MB each). If videos don't play in your browser, you can download them by clicking the link in the video player or the button below.
Sample capture 1
Sample capture 2
Sample capture 1 (repeat)
Step 2: Process with 3D app
Upload your video to a free 3D reconstruction tool:
The app will generate a high-quality 3D model ready to download.
Step 3: Register and upload
Fill participant form → Then download your model from the 3D app and upload it to our dataset (details provided after form submission).
What happens with my data?
Your 3D model becomes freely available from Zenodo under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Your 3D models are analyzed automatically by a community of researchers for coral health monitoring, AI development, and conservation insights.
your data will be used to train the next AI for coral monitoring
- ✓ You are credited as a data contributor.
- ✓ Open-source researchers can use your model for coral biology, ecology, computer vision, and graphics.
- ✓ Your contribution directly enables conservation decision-making.
- ✓ You retain full control of your original video footage.
Participating dive shops, organizations, and advocates
Louis Escobar
Bocas Pirates Dive Shop
Ben & Mariam (ReefMatters)
Raising Corals
Seeking partner
FreeWay SCUBA
Scanned corals from
Ready?
Choose a coral, film it, and help us build the world's most important coral dataset.
Use cases & scenarios
Adopt-a-Coral works for different participation levels and contexts.
🤿 Dive shop partnership
Integrate 3D scanning into guided dives. Train staff, conduct systematic surveys, and contribute hundreds of coral scans per season.
🪸 Adopt-a-Coral Classic
Long-term monitoring of a single coral. Visit every 3–6 months, capture a new scan, and track recovery, bleaching, or growth over years.
📸 One-timer contributor
Scan one coral on your vacation and contribute to the library. No long-term commitment required — one great 3D model helps research.
Coral nurseries & restoration
Library of papers and datasets on 3D imaging for coral reef ecology
Learning materials for adopt a coral