Citizen Science

Hannah Grist (Scotland’s Rural College)

Coast Marine Citizen Science Project

This was citizen science-led where we were engaging members of the public to undertake coastal ecological surveys across the UK, and using the data to look at large-scale patterns in distribution, range shifts and invasive species. Over 3000 people got involved in the UK, from Orkney down to the tip of Cornwall, and submitted nearly 40,000 species records over 3 years.

I was involved with training over 500 people to become rocky shore recorders, many of whom had never really explored the intertidal before. One of my favourite memories was walking back from a recording session with a participant in his seventies, who was as excited as a schoolkid and who couldn’t stop looking the whole walk back. He picked up something and said to me “look, look! It’s an animal right? Or a plant? Or a rock?!”. The world of marine creatures can be incredibly alien (even to experts sometimes!), but projects like these help everyone to get close to the amazing life in the ocean environment.