Project Portal

GUE Project Portal

Our Dream

Global Underwater Explorers is expanding efforts to conserve the underwater world, by creating a suite of resources for a diverse set of community-led projects. This initiative intends to inspire GUE communities to start and develop a broad range of projects, by using a standardized set of project planning tools.
We are building dreams one diver at a time, and this is embedded in all GUE Projects.

Our Project Portal is designed to leverage the organization of GUE projects across multiple disciplines, environmental objectives, and global communities using our DREAM initiative. We will help divers to:

Define the project objective
Research properties that illuminate your objective
Explore your environment and record relevant observations
Analyze and assemble observations in a publicly accessible manner
Motivate divers and laypersons in support of the underwater environment

what is a gue project?

A GUE Project is a goal-oriented scientific, educational, explorational, and/or conservational endeavor. Projects require a team of divers and support personnel who use advanced planning techniques, unique diving skills, and appropriate technology to realize their objectives. These activities may be recreational or focus on technical and/or cave skill sets. GUE Project goals should be defined within one or more of the following categories:

Exploration

Projects related to scouting and searching dives, with outputs such as reports, the discovery of new unexplored areas in underwater systems, and laying the groundwork for future iterations of projects.

Featured project: Dolina Pai João Exploration

Documentation

Projects related to photography, videography and other media, with outputs such as survey materials, photogrammetry models, and mini documentaries as outreach materials.

Featured project: Resurvey and Exploration of Cenote Cocom

Sample Collection

Projects related to scientific surveys, data collection and sample collections under permits, with outputs such as academic publications, reports for marine management, and evidence of species discovery.

Featured project: Measuring brain activity underwater with DAN

Conservation

Projects related to activities to protect the environment such as beach cleanups, ghost net removals, and seagrass planting, with outputs of ecosystem restoration, and preservation of aquatic areas.

Featured project: Clean the Gulf

browse OUR PROJECT library

Project Name	Location	Sketchfab / other media
Clean the Gulf Project	Gulf of Orosei, Sardinia
Resurvey and Exploration of Cenote Cocom	Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Dolina Pai João Exploration Project	Nobres, Brazil	Model soon!
Measuring Brain Activity Underwater	DAN x Deep Dive Dubai, UAE
Rec/Science Week 2024	Glavotok, Krk, Croatia
Coral Soul Deep Core	La Herradura, Spain
Baltic Wreck Week 2024	Władysławowo, Hel and Jastarnia
Ghost Diving Poland	Gdansk
Operation Spöknät - Lobster Pots	Sweden	Report soon!
BauBau, Boeton exploration project	Indonesia, Southeast Sulawesi
Operation Spöknät - Ghost nets	Sweden
Project Baseline - Islas Hormigas / Descadagor	Cabo de Palos, Spain	Model soon!
SDSS - summary	Sicily, Italy	Report soon!
Phreatic Organisation - summary	Sardinia, Italy	Report soon!

2023 compilation

SDSS report

Phreatic report

Annual report Sweden

2020-2021

2019-2020

2018

2017

2016

how to create a GUE project

Before organizing your project in full, it is important to develop the ideas and goals of the projects, conduct a preliminary planning phase (including a budget and permit considerations), and then register your Project with GUE HQ. The resources below will help you to do that.

Step 1: Develop

The GOALS of the project
The TYPE of project (recreational, technical or mixed)
The VALUE it will bring to the community and to GUE
Who will be the PROJECT MANAGER

Step 3: Register with HQ

request manager Resources

email jenn@gue.com

Step 2: Plan

What is your BUDGET (paid or unpaid for participants?)
If your project is FUNDED or not (and are you receiving grants)
OVERALL TIMELINE (Gantt charts)
Any PERMITS needed (including environmental impact assessments)

After step 3: Receive access to the Project Portal manager resources

After you have registered your project on the GUE HQ website, you will receive access to the Project Portal Manager resources: a suite of templates and guides designed to help you in all facets of project-planning: from logistics and budget ideas, to dive plans and report templates, to outreach and SOPs.

project portal Manager Resources: Continuing the step-by-step process

Team recruitment
Admin for all (including medical and liability forms)
Health / SOP guidelines (including Crisis Response and Risk Management plans)
Logistics / travel
Project timelines (including examples and templates)
Diving plans / gear
Data management
Media / outreach
Reports / delivery (including templates and checklists)

our commitment to you

Proving building tools that makes it easier and less intimidating for divers to develop projects.
Helping augment team resources by getting managers in touch with the right people.
Using GUE's credibility and the success of our project activities to gain access to otherwise difficult-to-access locations.
Writing letters to lend official credibility for approved projects, and provide marketing resources.

faq

Are the Project Briefs accessible to everyone?

Yes - anyone (GUE diver or non-GUE diver), can see and access the different project summaries. We hope that this will encourage aspiring projects divers and citizen scientists to get involved with GUE!

Do you have to be a certified GUE diver to create and register a GUE project?

Yes - only GUE divers are able to register a project, and then request the library of resources and information to make a project. If you are not a GUE diver, some of these resources would not make sense otherwise).

Why does the Project library not contain every project that GUE divers take part in?

GUE Projects come with a set of definition and taxonomic guidelines that have to be met, or to have context-specific variables that allows for deviation. GUE divers can be, and are, involved in numerous projects all over the world, as part of other teams and organisation, so this may not constitute as GUE Projects specifically (as per our Project Guideline document v1). In addition, this Project library includes only a selection of featured projects from Project Baseline but this is not exhaustive – see more here at https://projectbaseline.org/.

Who can I contact for more information if I want help starting a project??

Contact GUE's Project Co-ordinator (jenn@gue.com) for more information and questions.

How to join a gue project

Looking to get involved? Look at the Project Briefs above, and get in contact with the project lead directly. Look at the advertised projects already on the Events Calendar and sign up, or joining a citizen science initiative with Project Baseline. Or, why not join the NextGen Legacy Project community for some project and training inspiration?

And speaking of training; consider a GUE course that will give you additional skills before joining a project. For example: UW Cave Survey, Scientific Diver, Documentation Diver, Photogrammetry Diver, Gas Blender and Advanced First Aid.