6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY MAY 23-29, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com 831 There was a time, circa 2016, that the Pokémon Go craze took over. It became common to see people walking around town, arms extended with phone in hand, looking for fictional Pokémon creatures on their screens. Bioengineer Kakani Katija, who lives in Carmel Valley Village, observed this and thought: There might be a way to channel it into her deep-sea research goals. As a principal engineer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Katija leads the Bioinspiration Lab. Her big goal is to identify all life in the oceans, which takes place largely through designing instruments that can get to the deep, dark unexplored waters, accounting for an estimated 80 percent of the oceans; an estimated 30 to 60 percent of ocean life is still unknown to scientists. Fortunately for ocean explorers like Katija, humans need not get to these deep, inaccessible waters to see what’s there. Robots can capture footage. The challenge for researchers is that while technology enables them to collect data, they need people power to process that data. Katija hopes to eventually train artificial intelligence to comb through it—but first, machines need to be trained using human learning. That’s where the Pokémon Go concept comes in. “There are parallels between the two, except for the fact that oceans are real,” Katija says. She spent years on a collaborative effort (with &ranj Serious Games, Internet of Elephants and Monterey Bay Aquarium, funded with $500,000 from the National Science Foundation) developing the game FathomVerse, which launched on May 1. Now anyone anywhere can play on a phone or a tablet, watching colorful creatures flutter and float across the screen, using their thumbs to grab them to collect them in particular animal groups. (As for Katija’s approach: “I have a soft spot for gelatinous things. I will probably collect anything gelatinous— cyanophores, larvaceans, comb jellies.” Her own gaming experience is quite limited, but she’ll play anything Zelda.) It’s a game, but the animals and footage—collected by entities like MBARI, NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Schmidt Ocean Institute—are all real. “Most of those are animals nobody has ever seen before,” Katija notes. By gamifying the task of watching underwater footage, researchers can hope to make a dent, starting with 44 animal groups. And early signs show it is working: Within the first week, 5,000 players had generated 1.2 million animal identification. Players are also learning as they go, similar to iNaturalist or eBird. Some early adopters include marine researchers, although Katija hopes FathomVerse catches on widely in the gaming community. Marine biologist Ziyu Wang at Texas A&M University discovered FathomVerse via the Aquarium’s YouTube channel, downloaded it and started to play. “I am obsessed with unlocking new taxa,” he says. “The more I explore, the more animals I can unlock. It’s very exciting. And some fish really look hilarious, they really make my day.” He is more of a fish expert, and has been learning about different invertebrates through playing: “Sometimes they look very similar.” Wang has been playing as a “time-killer,” while waiting in line; 10 minutes is usually enough time to complete a dive. “I wish there were more games like this, where I can actually contribute to science,” he says. Beyond fun—a beautiful color scheme, courtesy of Mother Nature, and the satisfying action of collecting life forms a la Pokémon—contributing to science is, of course, the point of FathomVerse. Katija notes that a variety of policy decisions will be coming soon around issues like deep sea mining and offshore wind turbines, and data is limited because so much of the ocean remains unexplored. “How do we prepare to make informed decisions around these activities? We don’t have a baseline, even,” she says. “By playing a game you are helping us get through the data backlog so we can inform these decisions.” FathomVerse is available for free in the App Store or on Google Play. For more, visit fathomverse.game. Deep Dive Scientists at MBARI needed help exploring the deep sea— so they made a game. By Sara Rubin Gamers conduct “dives” that last about 10-30 minutes, in which they watch life forms move through ocean currents. Pressing with your thumb enlarges an animal for more information, and the opportunity to annotate it. “Some fish really look hilarious, they make my day.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE COURTESY OF LILLI CARLSEN/MBARI
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