COASTAL INFRASTRUCTURE · REAL TIME MARINE MONITORING
ECOncrete: How AnemoLive Cameras Proved Bio-Enhancing Coastal Armor Increases Fish Abundance
6
AnemoLive units deployed
24/7
Live footage streamed
Client
About
ECOncrete designs coastal protection blocks with complex, textured surfaces built to support marine colonisation. The Port of Bilbao is testing them. Anemo Robotics is providing the continuous underwater evidence: 6 AnemoLive cameras, livestreaming and recording, for 12 months.
Technology
AnemoLive + AnemoAI
Timeline
April 2025 - April 2026
Location
Port of Bilbao, Spain
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The Project
Understanding how fish interact with new reef structures
This project supports long-term monitoring of ECOncrete coastal blocks in the Port of Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) through a simple commercial delivery: a 12-month rental of 6 AnemoLive cameras, paired with continuous video processing and site-specific AI fish detection fine-tuning.
The project goal is to deliver continuous video data from the site, with processed outputs that are usable for real-time monitoring and reporting.
Coastal armor that works with nature
Traditional coastal protection, like breakwater blocks, sea walls and revetments, uses smooth, dense concrete designed for structural performance. Marine life struggles to colonise it. The surfaces are too uniform, too hostile to the micro-habitats that organisms need to settle, grow, and build communities.
ECOncrete takes a different approach. Its coastal blocks called COASTALOCK are engineered with complex surface textures, micro-habitats, and chemical properties that mimic natural rocky intertidal habitat. The design is built on the hypothesis that coastal infrastructure can do two things at once: protect against wave energy, and actively support marine biodiversity. The proof has been hard to come by, because proving it requires continuous, long-term observation, not a diver survey twice a year.
The Challenge
Measuring biodiversity at tidal range is technically demanding
The tidal zone is one of the most dynamic marine environments to monitor. Conditions shift every few hours: the blocks are submerged, then exposed, then submerged again. Visibility changes with turbidity, light, and season. Biofouling pressure builds on camera lenses over weeks. And access for manual surveys is constrained by both tides and safety.
The result, historically, has been that coastal block biodiversity is assessed through infrequent surveys (with photo analysis) or drop-camera campaigns. These capture moments, not trends. They cannot answer the questions that matter for evaluating bio-enhancing design:
Which species colonise the ECOncrete blocks — and when in the annual cycle?
Is colonisation faster or more diverse on ECOncrete than on adjacent traditional armor?
What is the day/night activity pattern of mobile fauna using the blocks as habitat?
How does the community change across seasons over a full year?
None of these questions can be answered from a handful of site visits. They require continuous observation.
The Solution
AnemoLive - wired, continuous, running regardless of tidal access
AnemoLive cameras provide continuous, live-streamed monitoring of marine biodiversity, installed on the ECOncrete blocks at tidal range, connected via cable to the port infrastructure's power supply. They record continuously, stream live footage to cloud storage, and require no retrieval trips to access data.
The setup is simple: hardware deployed once, footage processed on a weekly basis, outputs available for ongoing monitoring and reporting. Each camera runs with illumination optimised for the tidal conditions, capturing activity through low-light and dark periods when fish and mobile invertebrates are often most active.
AnemoAI processes the footage with site-specific fine-tuning based on early data from Bilbao, adapting the detection model to the local species, lighting conditions, and visibility variability specific to this port environment.
AnemoLive feature | Why it matters at tidal range |
|---|---|
Wired to the port power infrastructure | No battery limits - runs continuously for an unlimited period |
24/7 live stream to Azure cloud | Data is accessible remotely at any time, with no site visits required |
Anti-biofouling wiper system | Keeps lenses clear over the full 12-month deployment without manual cleaning |
Illumination included | Captures activity in low-light tidal conditions and night-time |
Site-specific AI fine-tuning | Model adapted to Bilbao's local species, turbidity, and lighting conditions for higher accuracy |
Heat-resistant unit casings for harsh conditions | Unit casings adapted for long sun exposure to minimize overheating components |
Outcomes
The comparison that matters — ECOncrete vs. traditional coastal armor
The cameras are positioned on the ECOncrete blocks and on adjacent sections of traditional coastal armor in the same port environment. Same water, same conditions, different surface design. The footage, processed weekly by AnemoAI, will produce a continuous record of:
Species presence and abundance on ECOncrete blocks vs. traditional armor over time
Colonisation progression — which species arrive first, which follow, and how the community develops
Day/night and tidal activity patterns for mobile fauna using the blocks as habitat or foraging ground
Seasonal change across the full annual cycle — from winter baseline to summer productivity peaks
Weekly updates live from the site
Unlike a research project that publishes results at the end, this monitoring programme generates continuous public outputs. Every week, Anemo Robotics publishes a highlight video from the Bilbao cameras — showing what the footage is capturing in real time.
Partners and roles
ECOncrete — Client, bio-enhancing coastal block design and deployment at the Port of Bilbao
Port of Bilbao — Site host providing access to coastal infrastructure and power supply for camera connection
Anemo Robotics — Long-term monitoring with AnemoLive cameras + AI-assisted analysis via AnemoAI
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