By: Daphne Yin, Tanya Stere
This weedy or common seadragon (WA-1578) is a relative newcomer to the population where he was sighted. He also has a parasitic isopod on the underside of his tail. This will diminish his chances of brooding eggs unless it moves off naturally. Photo: Nerida Wilson.
Along Australia's southern coastline, wild seadragons sway in the currents, their leaf-like appendages making them nearly indistinguishable from the seaweed forests they call home. Seadragons - cousins to seahorses - have captivated divers, photographers, and marine enthusiasts for generations. These living works of art, found nowhere else in the wild, are facing growing threats from habitat loss and climate change.
A dedicated community of researchers and citizen scientists is helping to change their future. Using AI-powered technology, recreational divers and underwater photographers are documenting individual seadragons through their unique spot patterns, building an unprecedented database of their movements, behaviors, and population trends. Their efforts through SeadragonSearch are revolutionizing our understanding of these enigmatic fish and informing their conservation.
For Dr. Nerida Wilson, a career studying marine invertebrates took an unexpected turn when she noticed a critical gap in understanding genetics to help protect one of Australia's most iconic species.
"I realized no one was doing this work," recalls Nerida, now an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia's School of Biological Sciences. While conducting genetic sampling of seadragons in the mid 2000s, she discovered their unique spot patterns could identify individuals, but initially lacked the tools and funding to make use of this insight. Years later, she saw a PhD student’s presentation on using Wildbook to identify individual manta rays through MantaMatcher.org, and saw an opportunity to adapt Wildbook for the ID of leafy and weedy seadragons.
Jason Holmberg, Director of the Wild Me Lab at Conservation X Labs — developers of Wildbook platform — was excited at the cross-application to a personal favorite species. “Using some of our existing computer vision tools to match seadragons was an exciting possibility, but we needed Nerida’s expertise to validate that they would work, and to build an impactful research and citizen science community.”
In November 2020, SeadragonSearch - a collaborative citizen science platform using Wild Me's Wildbook technology - opened its platform for public submissions, marking a new chapter in citizen science engagement. The response was remarkable - over 5,500 individuals have been catalogued through over 19,000 submissions from around 600 data contributors across southern Australia.
Chrissy Tustison, at the time a master’s student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was a critical part of launching the new platform. "I had only seen seadragons in aquariums before, and was completely enchanted," says Tustison, now a PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia. She worked on the launch and engagement strategy, working with Wildbook’s software and AI engineers to draw bounding boxes and train machine learning tools. Seadragons have sustained her interest over time. For her PhD dissertation, she is continuing to use data collected through SeadragonSearch to answer questions about seadragon abundances and reproduction, as well as citizen science engagement.
Redefining seadragon research
SeadragonSearch has dramatically expanded understanding of these unique creatures through its combination of artificial intelligence and citizen science.
Wild seadragons are exclusively found along the southern coast of Australia. There are currently three known species: the weedy (or common) seadragon, the leafy seadragon, and the recently discovered ruby seadragon.
Forks (WA-1582) is a longstanding member of her ruby seadragon population, well-known for her sometimes loner behaviour. Her distinctively notched ventral flags make her easy to identify in the field. Photo: J. Martin Crossley.
This leafy seadragon (WA-0060) was sighted ten times in the year that he was first seen. This species differs by having many more camouflage appendages than the weedy seadragon. Photo: Greg Rouse.
One of the most significant findings from the platform’s data revealed that seadragons can live up to 16 years in the wild, outliving previous estimates by up to six years. This discovery could be key for informing the work of aquariums, which historically tend to be more interested in breeding success and reproductive environmental conditions than in longevity.
The platform's growth has been remarkable. With a team led by Nerida and Chrissy, SeadragonSearch grew from 2,456 encounters in 2021 to 19,123 encounters in 2025 (year to date). Collaborating organizations span Australian institutions, including the University of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum, South Australian Museum, University of Adelaide, University of Technology Sydney, and the Victorian National Parks Association, as well as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.
2024 SeadragonSearch Report Card.
Having access to historical data is critical to informing population estimates. SeadragonSearch has thankfully been able to connect with divers who have existing photo collections of seadragons in Eastern Australia. In Western Australia, there was less existing data, and Nerida and Chrissy have worked to support people in migrating their data from iNaturalist to SeadragonSearch. Yet data for this region remains limited. Overall, there are still major limitations in the ability to measure potential declines or local extinction of seadragons in places where there used to be presence.
While some divers have always documented seadragons as part of their dives - some interested in conservation broadly, others with their own science backgrounds interested in particular questions - SeadragonSearch has deepened their curiosity and dedication to learning more about seadragons. One of the benefits of contributing to the platform is that the data gathered by citizen scientists is contributing to peer-reviewed scientific studies. This is an uncommon benefit for a citizen science effort, and even more uncommon for users to be kept engaged and informed of the progress of the research.
In response to strong user interest, Chrissy and Nerida have shared tidbits of information about what they are learning through analyzing the data. "When you have a community of people contributing the data, you have to share it as soon as possible. It's not really the way scientists usually work," notes Nerida. "We discussed what to share, what not to share - and decided to share insights on longevity since it is of high interest."
Building community engagement
The SeadragonSearch platform excels at fostering community engagement, with many public talks, open days and community events. Its Facebook group has grown to nearly 3,000 members, creating an active network of citizen scientists.
To recruit new contributors at the start of the project, Nerida and Chrissy made a list of dive shops located in areas where seadragons are known to be an attraction, put up posters, gave talks, and handed out countless promotional magnets. While the platform is online and digital in nature, in-person engagement is crucial.
"Over time, we found that in-person talks and engagement are 100% the most effective way for people to participate," notes Nerida. "In the seadragon community, on the weekends, Chrissy and I will dive and submit our own data. People respect that, it's part of the authenticity. Interacting with divers ourselves, personal one-on-ones are very effective in Western Australia, where there wasn’t a long history of diving with dragons before."
They also credit many of the citizen scientists who have championed their work and attracted more people to the platform. “Many of our contributors also travel to dive with seadragons in other parts of Australia,” Nerida said. “These passionate divers are wonderful ambassadors for the project nationally.”
To maintain engagement, the team organizes specific competitions focused on topics like life stages. These competitions have proven highly effective. When they launched a contest to document the first brooding males of the season, the community's response exceeded expectations despite the fact that brooding begins in the cold of winter in Western Australia. "We got real lucky and didn’t realize how impactful that competition would be," Nerida reflects. "People got crazy, in the best way!"
The competitions have helped gather crucial data about breeding patterns, feeding data into Chrissy’s PhD research, while keeping contributors actively involved - an example of alignment between research and community interests. This has allowed for a feedback loop of research driving engagement driving research, making for a more responsive research cycle than traditionally seen across conservation and biology.
"In terms of conservation, a lot of what the project is doing that's valuable is empowering people in their communities to do something that makes a difference," reflects Chrissy. "It makes me think about grassroots stewardship empowering people to take care of their local habitats."
For a platform revolving primarily around citizen science, it is vital citizen scientists are responsible in their diving and photography practices to minimize any negative impacts on the marine habitat, seadragons, and other living beings. The SeadragonSearch Code of Conduct, adapted from the South Australia-based Diving with Dragons brochure, provides a guide for safe and enjoyable encounters with wild seadragons. On occasion, the team provides onsite dive briefings to assist divers to minimize their impacts on seadragons.
Toward stronger conservation outcomes
SeadragonSearch has submitted a re-assessment of the IUCN Red List status of the weedy seadragon, using the new population estimates generated through this data set, and proposing a “Vulnerable” status in place of its current “Near Threatened” status. A standardised approach to these population estimates was critically lacking from previous assessments.
Climate change and pollution are impacting seadragon habitat in parts of Australia, especially in Tasmania, the coldest part of the range and a hotspot for climate change. Other threats to seadragons include accidental capture as bycatch, as well as illegal collection. The IUCN listing would provide important visibility to support in conservation policy and planning.
In Australia, SeadragonSearch data is also finding use in other state-level and local fora to support conservation efforts:
In 2021, SeadragonSearch provided data to consultancy Carijoa for the Proposed South Coast Park Marine Reserves review. This included a distribution map of sightings in the South Coast region, community engagement measures, and expert comment on genetic diversity and distributions.
In 2022, SeadragonSearch provided data to the Environmental Protection Authority/Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to assist them in assessing the City of Fremantle and Fremantle Ports proposal for sand renourishment activity at Port Beach.
In 2024, SeadragonSearch provided population trends information to the State of the Environment report for Victoria.
Seadragons serve as an important flagship species, where enhanced spatial protections for seadragons would provide umbrella benefits for other fish and invertebrate species sharing the same habitats.
Looking ahead
SeadragonSearch has a good lifespan still ahead and plans to continue for at least 10 years, potentially longer given the new understanding of seadragon lifespans and continued threats to their existence and wellbeing.
“The thoughtfulness and success that the SeadragonSearch team has put into engaging their citizen scientists is something we hope to achieve with all of our Wildbook communities. We’re working to develop engagement playbooks modeled after their success,” says Tanya Stere, Lead Product Manager for the Wild Me team at Conservation X Labs. “If every platform can build such a community, we’ll drive conservation forward.”
As Chrissy prepares publications on population sizes and breeding patterns, the team remains focused on empowering local stewardship while building the scientific foundation for conservation. Their work demonstrates how artificial intelligence and citizen science can bridge research gaps while fostering community investment in protecting these remarkable creatures.
