Generating high-quality environmental monitoring data is a critical component for permitting marine energy testing and development. Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as an important tool for data scientists, predictive modelers, developers, and others in the marine energy industry to help improve data analysis and optimize efficiency. Annotating monitoring data for use by scientists and developers to create machine learning (ML) algorithms can help ensure environmental monitoring data is usable by end users who can apply it to propel the industry forward.

The Triton Initiative is a Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office project that aims to increase knowledge around potential environmental effects of marine energy devices through environmental monitoring and research. AI and ML are high-priority tools for advancing algorithm development that can enhance this research by improving data processing for efficiency and application. 

We want to introduce you to the Triton scientists and engineers who are making waves in the marine energy field. Marg Daly, an Earth scientist and oceanographer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), is combining her expertise in physical oceanography and ML by leading Triton’s Data Annotation for Marine Monitoring (DAMM) project. 

A lifelong affinity for the ocean 

Ever since Marg was a child, she had an affinity and curiosity for the ocean. In the third grade, Marg read Dolphins at Daybreak by Mary Pope Osborne, a book in the Magic Treehouse series with a non-fiction accompaniment about dolphins and sharks, and her passion for the ocean was set for life. Her family noticed and nurtured that interest, showing her that there were abundant opportunities and career paths connected to the ocean waiting to be explored. 

In high school, Marg loved her math and physics classes, hoping to find a job one day that lived at the intersection of her many interests. After meeting with ocean scientists who provided insights into the various career fields in this space, she landed at Cornell University and pursued her bachelor's in the science of Earth systems, concentrating in ocean sciences with a minor in environmental engineering. At Cornell, she was able to take both Earth science and hands-on engineering classes, which pushed her to think more about research and what could be done from a multidisciplinary perspective. 

In the fall of her senior year, Marg took a course in fluid mechanics and learned from her professor that she could pursue a PhD and conduct fieldwork, which led her to a master’s in environmental fluid mechanics and hydrology and a PhD in physical oceanography at Stanford University. Her studies at Stanford were interdisciplinary—her analysis and techniques were based in physical oceanography, but the applications were very ecologically focused. 

In addition to being an ocean science enthusiast, Marg is an avid diver. During her PhD, Marg completed 400 science dives throughout the Pacific, taking her below the water’s surface in Palau, Hawaii, Baja, San Diego, and Monterey. “For me, being in the field and capturing and collecting measurements in the water was a huge motivator to look at the data,” said Marg. For her dissertation, she conducted several studies, including examining the evolution of heat waves and hypoxic events in Baja, Mexico to understand how that would affect the survival of green abalone, studying the hydrodynamics impacting local variability around the island, attaching accelerometers to giant kelp at different heights to understand kelp motion, and developing an automated detector for sea otters with drone imagery. These experiences all helped build out a diverse marine science skillset she brought with her to PNNL. After completing her PhD, Marg was in search of a laboratory that allowed her to conduct research that touched on her many interests. When she found the Coastal Sciences Division at PNNL, she knew she would be able to do just that. 

Fueling curiosity about the ocean 

Marg loves working with the ocean because there are always more questions than answers. “You always find more things to fuel your curiosity,” said Marg. She also stated that she’s dumbfounded by the many adaptations of creatures in the ocean that we do and don’t know about. 

Marg can talk at length about the way that animals sense things in the ocean. Some baleen whales, for example, have whiskers from the tubercles that can sense wakes from phytoplankton or zooplankton, which improves their efficiency for feeding. Some types of beaked whales can swim to the bottom of the ocean, scan the seafloor with echolocation clicks, and build a map to figure out where they are, while sperm whales have been observed to use echolocation to determine their depth in the ocean. Marg loves these facts specifically because they integrate her love of biology and physics. 

While she was doing her fieldwork for her PhD, Marg encountered a plethora of wildlife. She conducted research on an island in Baja for a month and performed all the deployment and recovery on a small boat. The weights for her equipment were Home Depot buckets filled with concrete, and one day she saw a bright orange octopus camouflaged on the bucket. Once the creature noticed her, the octopus changed color, swam to the bottom of the ocean, twisted its tentacles up, and walked away like a crab. Studying and witnessing so many marine life forms further fueled her interest in ocean science and desire to study the complex interactions between ocean life, human systems, and short- and long-term environmental change. 

Because of her experience in the field, Marg was eager to join the PNNL Research Dive Team based at PNNL-Sequim, where she will be supporting efforts like habitat restoration, sensor deployment, and in-water experiments in Sequim Bay with numerous projects, including Triton. 

Creating opportunities for AI and machine learning through the Data Annotation for Marine Monitoring project 

Marg is leading one of Triton’s newest efforts, the DAMM project, where she’s exploring opportunities to use AI and ML to improve efficiencies for data processing and analysis of environmental datasets around marine energy deployments. A key component of these approaches is the format and quality of annotated data used for training. 

Annotated datasets can be disparate and discrete in different topic areas and projects. “For new applications of AI and machine learning,” said Marg, “it’s so important to have high-quality training datasets to improve algorithm performance and reduce the amount of time needed for labeling.” 

This project aims to meet these needs by developing and/or sharing best practices in data annotation across data modalities and developing AI-driven data processing pipelines. The DAMM team will generate high-quality training data to expedite model development for environmental monitoring. This effort will demonstrate the transferability of data to new marine energy sites while also highlighting the limitations when applying these datasets in variable environmental contexts. By establishing these guidelines and tools, DAMM can facilitate collaboration, maintain data integrity, and support the development of ML/AI models for marine energy monitoring.    

According to Marg, PNNL is well-suited to lead this research because, within the Triton team, there is representation from a variety of technical specialists within marine energy and marine monitoring. Additionally, PNNL has extensive capabilities in ML and AI, data management, and data organization, which “makes us a great place to host something like DAMM,” Marg said. 

Pursuing a career in ocean science 

When asked what advice she would give to people who want to pursue a career in her field, Marg said, “As a kid, I was told to find a job that doesn’t feel like you’re working. That still feels like good advice.” Marg tried out a lot of different things before she got to where she is today, applying to PhDs in both acoustics and fluid mechanics. After being unsure what she wanted to pursue, Marg stated, “My undergrad advisor said to do either, as long as you’re happy at the end of your life.” She also expressed that “you don’t have to have your entire future picked out, just trust that you’re still going to be curious when you find something that comes along.” 

Life outside of work

When she’s not working, you can find Marg in the great outdoors. She loves backpacking, skiing, hiking, and scuba diving. She recently moved to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington—where the mountains meet the sea—so she is currently exploring her new home and looks forward to spending more time sailing and kayaking in the coming months. 

Interested in learning about other careers in marine energy environmental monitoring? Read our other Triton Stories.

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