Coral Cover: Red Sea - Saudi Arabia 2023-24

Shaded value = in the CV mean (shade deepens with cover) Gray italic = shown for comparison but left out of the CV mean: the gold standard (the reference value) and the manually annotated in CoralNet CoralNet benchmark annotations (reference values, not models), Coralscapes (not trusted), and any value that reuses the reference's own data n = frames behind the value — = not run or not applicable (see each region's notes) Site names and method names link out (new tab)

Coral Cover: Red Sea - Saudi Arabia 2023-24

22 sites · 5,148 photos

Gold standard = each site's own published CoralNet point count (Environments 12:248, Appendix A; most frames annotated by CoralNet's AI, trained and checked by the author). 583 photos manually scored (via CoralNet) for the benchmark. Benchmark photos mostly unedited; CoralSCOP ran on edited photos.

Site	Date	Headline (site page)	Claude	Gold standard	Benchmark subset (manual CoralNet; not the gold standard)	DINOv3	Coralscapes v1	Coralscapes v2	CoralSCOP	Mean ± SD of CV	Range
Abu Ejeiah (Thuwal)	2023-09-02–2024-10-04	15%published point count	17^jn=366	15^an=417	too few photos (n=4)^b,c	too few photos (n=4)^d,c	14^g,fn=367	16^e,fn=367	24^h,in=367	21 ± 4.8	17–24
Cement Reef (Thuwal)	2023-09-02–2024-11-29	22%published point count	24^jn=478	22^an=469	22^bn=95	26^dn=95	19^g,fn=472	20^e,fn=472	29^h,in=471	27 ± 2.6	24–29
Cement Wreck (Thuwal)	2023-09-08–2024-11-09	13%published point count	12^jn=387	13^an=383	18^bn=11	34^dn=11	10^g,fn=392	11^e,fn=391	21^h,i,kn=391	22 ± 10.7	12–34
Rose Reef (Thuwal)	2023-09-08–2024-11-29	14%published point count	13^jn=438	14^an=720	too few photos (n=3)^b,c	too few photos (n=3)^d,c	16^g,fn=457	18^e,fn=457	24^h,i,kn=455	19 ± 7.5	13–24
Um Mankout (Yanbu)	2023-09-15	26%published point count	29^jn=227	26^an=228	too few photos (n=2)^b,c	too few photos (n=2)^d,c	26^g,fn=229	27^e,fn=229	32^h,in=229	30 ± 2.1	29–32
Al Fasmah (Yanbu)	2023-09-16	22%published point count	27^jn=116	22^an=116	—	—	24^g,fn=116	25^e,fn=116	31^h,in=116	29 ± 3.1	27–31
Alrass Alakhdar (Yanbu)	2023-09-16	30%published point count	39^jn=57	30^an=59	—	—	27^g,fn=58	27^e,fn=58	36^h,in=58	38 ± 2.3	36–39
Thetis (Yanbu)	2023-10-06–2024-08-09	16%published point count	12^jn=169	16^an=170	too few photos (n=5)^b,c	too few photos (n=5)^d,c	15^g,fn=171	16^e,fn=171	21^h,in=171	16 ± 5.8	12–21
Mr. Umluj (Yanbu)	2023-10-07–2024-11-08	17%published point count	17^jn=326	17^an=326	—	—	22^g,fn=326	23^e,fn=326	22^h,in=326	20 ± 3.7	17–22
Long Reef (Thuwal)	2023-11-17	14%published point count	12^jn=88	14^an=90	—	—	18^g,fn=91	20^e,fn=91	24^h,in=91	18 ± 9.0	12–24
Cave Reef (Thuwal)	2024-02-09	16%published point count	16^jn=65	16^an=68	too few photos (n=2)^b,c	too few photos (n=2)^d,c	12^g,fn=71	13^e,fn=71	22^h,i,kn=70	19 ± 4.3	16–22
Abu Galawa (Yanbu)	2024-04-19–11-08	18%published point count	22^jn=135	18^an=138	—	—	22^g,fn=140	24^e,fn=140	31^h,i,kn=138	26 ± 6.6	22–31
Chicken Wreck (Jeddah)	2024-08-02–17	17%published point count	10^jn=171	17^an=251	16^bn=125	27^dn=126	15^g,fn=210	16^e,fn=210	24^h,in=153	21 ± 9.2	10–27
Drogon Corals (Jeddah)	2024-08-02	14%published point count	10^jn=65	14^an=67	too few photos (n=1)^b,c	too few photos (n=1)^d,c	12^g,fn=66	12^e,fn=66	22^h,in=66	16 ± 8.1	10–22
Anderson's Reef-I (Jeddah)	2024-08-03	23%published point count	20^jn=146	23^an=146	too few photos (n=1)^b,c	too few photos (n=1)^d,c	22^g,fn=147	24^e,fn=147	29^h,in=147	25 ± 6.6	20–29
Anderson's Reef-II (Jeddah)	2024-08-03	21%published point count	19^jn=175	21^an=174	too few photos (n=3)^b,c	too few photos (n=3)^d,c	18^g,fn=174	19^e,fn=174	25^h,in=174	22 ± 4.1	19–25
Coral Gardens (Jeddah)	2024-08-10–17	28%published point count	25^jn=271	28^an=300	29^bn=156	44^dn=156	19^g,fn=254	21^e,fn=254	29^h,in=254	33 ± 10.1	25–44
north Rabigh (shore) (Rabigh)	2024-08-16	24%published point count	23^jn=158	24^an=173	23^bn=175	57^dn=175	15^g,fn=122	16^e,fn=122	30^h,in=122	36 ± 17.8	23–57
unnamed site 1 (Al Qunfudah)	2024-08-30	16%published point count	18^jn=123	16^an=130	—	—	18^g,fn=119	19^e,fn=119	31^h,in=119	24 ± 9.7	18–31
unnamed site 2 (Al Qunfudah)	2024-08-30	17%published point count	11^jn=86	17^an=80	—	—	13^g,fn=70	15^e,fn=70	24^h,in=70	18 ± 9.3	11–24
Shark Reef (Thuwal)	2024-08-31–09-14	16%published point count	14^jn=351	16^an=421	—	—	12^g,fn=334	13^e,fn=334	22^h,i,kn=330	18 ± 5.8	14–22
Bhadur Reef (Jeddah)	2024-09-07	21%published point count	18^jn=174	21^an=222	—	—	17^g,fn=168	17^e,fn=168	27^h,i,kn=167	23 ± 6.3	18–27
All sites (unweighted mean)		—	19	19	—	—	18	19	26	22 ± 5.5	19–26

Notes for Red Sea - Saudi Arabia 2023-24 (15)

[a] Gold = this site's own published CoralNet point count by the author (Mayfield 2025, Environments 12:248, Appendix A; n = photos; most frames annotated by CoralNet's AI, trained and checked by the author), the value the site page, report card, and map pop-up print. The paper's Table 4 also gives AREA means: Thuwal 16% (n=2567); Jeddah 22% (n=1160); Rabigh 24% (n=173); Yanbu 20% (n=1036); Qunfudah 17% (n=210).
[b] Separate benchmark, not a second gold value: the author's own CoralNet points on the benchmark frames (746 frames), (30 − WATER − FISH − DVR), unknown points kept (Red Sea paper Section 2.2), recomputed per frame.
[c] Too few photos (under 10) at this site for a value: not shown and not averaged (photo-count rule: 10 or more photos for a value, 20 or more for a confident one).
[d] DINOv3 (fine-tuned) point predictions at the author's CoralNet points on the benchmark frames; hard coral / (points − WATER − FISH − DVR by reference label). No full-set DINOv3 run exists.
[e] Coralscapes v2 on EDITED frames.
[f] Coralscapes (v1 EPFL-ECEO/coralscapes-vit-b-dpt; v2 coralscapesv2-dinov3-vitb-lora-dpt) is not considered reliable for these photos: shown, never averaged. Area fraction, not a point count.
[g] Coralscapes v1 on UNEDITED frames.
[h] CoralSCOP = per-frame sum of colony-mask area fractions (zero-filled; overlapping masks double-count), averaged over frames with an ok row. Area index, not a point count: denominator differs from any point-count reference. It is also unstable frame to frame (the same subject has scored 94.1% in one photo and 23.3% in another), and the mask sum overstates cover most on the healthiest reefs.
[i] CoralSCOP full-set run, EDITED frames (the CoralNet-annotated Saudi subset), finished (4,485 of 4,495 frames scored; 10 could not be scored: failed, unreadable or skipped at the memory cap).
[j] Claude = the full-set blind point count (EDITED, AI-processed where no edit exists; 20 pts, 7-call, (HC+BL)/(20 − WATER − FISH − OBST)), the value the site pages show.
[k] Run finished at this site; n leaves out the frame(s) CoralSCOP could not score (mask generation failed, unreadable file, or skipped at the runner's memory cap), so n is below the site's frame count. Not partial.
Mean/Range: Mean ± SD and Range are over the CV cells that enter the mean (CoralNet where independent, DINOv3, CoralSCOP unedited/edited, Claude). Gold standard, frames manually annotated in CoralNet, Coralscapes and same-measurement cells are shown in gray italic but never averaged.
Headline (site page): the coral-cover figure the site's page, report card and map pop-up print, with its method; it is never averaged into the CV mean.
Methods: Claude (Anthropic); DINOv3 (Meta; paper; used here as the frozen backbone of the in-house classifier); Coralscapes v1 and v2 (EPFL-ECEO; dataset paper, code); CoralSCOP (Zheng et al., CVPR 2024); CoralNet.
Sites: names drop the region prefix (hover for the full name) and link to the site's CRD page, or to the regional summary page where the site has none. Date = survey date from the map pins (first–last visit); sites are listed earliest first, undated sites last.

All regions