The original objective for GlobalArchive was to create a centralised repository for Stereo and single camera fish image annotation, in particular from Baited Remote Underwater stereo-Video (stereo-BRUVs) and Diver Operated stereo-Video (stereo-DOVs). Such fish image annotation data, is currently collected by various research, management and academic institutions globally (+100,000’s hours of deployments) with varying degrees of standardisation and limited formal collaboration or data synthesis. The EventMeasure software from SeaGIS is the most commonly used approach for annotating such samples, however other approaches exist and have been used historically. There was a need for a mechanism to easily archive and share historical and modern fish image annotations and associated information across projects and institutions to encourage synthesis. The requirement for a repository that could flexibly ingest different forms of data has resulted in GlobalArchive being used to synthesise not only stereo-BRUVs and stereo-DOVs image annotation data but also underwater visual sampling (UVC) and benthic habitat annotation.