arXiv · 2511.00022
Automating Coral Reef Fish Family Identification on Video Transects Using a YOLOv8-Based Deep Learning Pipeline
Abstract
Coral reef monitoring in the Western Indian Ocean is limited by the labor demands of underwater visual censuses. This work evaluates a YOLOv8-based deep learning pipeline for automating family-level fish identification from video transects collected in Kenya and Tanzania. A curated dataset of 24 families was tested under different configurations, providing the first region-specific benchmark for automated reef fish monitoring in the Western Indian Ocean. The best model achieved mAP@0.5 of 0.52, with high accuracy for abundant families but weaker detection of rare or complex taxa. Results demonstrate the potential of deep learning as a scalable complement to traditional monitoring methods.
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Jules Gerard, Leandro Di Bella, Filip Huyghe, Marc Kochzius. 2025-10-24. Automating Coral Reef Fish Family Identification on Video Transects Using a YOLOv8-Based Deep Learning Pipeline. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.00022
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