Sofar Ocean's pioneering smart buoy and mooring platform was installed in late 2020 at Mala Reef by the Lahaina-based nonprofit Kohola Film Project. The system collects  real-time data that can be used to help with the preservation and protection of coral reefs that are in crisis worldwide due to accelerating rates of global warming.

The system installed at Mala Reef was the first of its kind on Maui and among the first installed worldwide as part of a new global initiative launched on October 6, 2020 by Aqualink, a philanthropic engineering organization working on building ocean conservation technology.