The Global Coral Reef Environmental Observatory Network (CREON) Integration Meeting was held March 13-14, with the participation of 60 scientists and engineers from Taiwan, America, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Costa Rica.

CREON, an association striving to design and build marine sensor networks, held the meeting with the Pacific Rim Applications and Grid Middleware Assembly, an internationally renowned grid community with rich expertise in resources, bioscience, telescience and geoscience.

High-tech sensor networks combine data and information collected through remote satellite measurement, early warning systems and monitoring stations in oceans, allowing researchers to review coral reef ecosystems in real time and in different dimensions such as 3D.

The two-day meeting reviewed the performance of sensor networks deployed in coral reef areas in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Moorea in French Polynesia, and Taiwan’s Houbihu marine protected area in Kenting.

A sensor network was deployed in Kenting’s coral reef area a few years ago by a research team of Kenting’s National Museum of Marine Biology, with the help of CREON. The team, consisting of both domestic and foreign scientists, has accumulated wide experience in coral reef conservation. Kenting’s coral reefs had an average coverage of 40 percent after last year’s crisis of reef bleaching. Other coral reef areas in Pacific and Indian oceans had coverage of only 20 percent on average after the bleaching crisis.

Kenting’s Houbihu area amazed the meeting participants because of its 60 percent coverage. The participants dived on the reef for a first-hand look on the first day of the meeting. Other conclusions reached at the meeting include designating the Houbihu area as a reference resource in conservation, and holding a meeting every year in Kenting to integrate data and information collected through global sensor networks on coral reef ecosystems and the impact of climatic changes on marine environments.

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