Mary Shodipo: from the love of music to the love of oceans
Mary started her career as a music producer and teacher, before falling in love with the ocean on a volunteering mission in the Philippines. After relocating there to do a master's degree at Silliman University, she is now a Marine Ecologist and a National Geographic Explorer.
Calling in our corals: Mary Shodipo in the Philippines
It all started with a holiday
"One year I went on holiday in the Philippines and did some marine conservation work... and I just decided that's how I wanted my life to be."
Calling in our corals: an example of a healthy reef by Mary Shodipo
Biodiversity and fishing
When I started doing research in Marine protected areas (where no fishing takes place) I was fascinated by how even in a few hectares, the amount of life and biodiversity was so much greater than in nearby fished areas"
Calling in our corals: scientists diving by Mary Shodipo
The reef is a noisy place: how can people listen to it?
"Fish can be very vocal, so a busy reef is a noisy place. My research involves placing sound recorders in coral reefs to find out if we can hear the health of the reef. I now have hundreds of hours of recordings, so I need help with going through it all."
Calling in our corals: Mary Shodipo in the Philippines
How can technology help marine conservation?
"Ultimately, the goal is to create AI algorithms to go through these recordings of soundscapes much quicker than humans can.This will allow us to work through large amounts of data and gain a better understanding of the complex and beautiful cacophony of coral reef sounds."
calling in our corals
Become a citizen scientist.
Lend marine scientists your ear and train your ear to determine if a reef sounds healthy. And then travel virtually to the reef to analyse its soundscapes, taking part to the first collective study on marine protection.
Launch the experience.
Calling in our corals is part of the Heartbeat of the Earth initiative of Google Arts & Culture's Lab, a series of experiments using art and technology to make climate data more accessible.
Explore Calling in our corals here.
Read Steve's interview
Discover the role of citizen scientists in cutting-edge ocean research
Thanks to Mary Shodipo and Steve Simpson for their collaboration. All the photos of Mary have been taken by Carmen Del Prado.