Citizen Science

[Meanderthal]

Husband and I are going to be out and about in Prince William Sound, AK, for a few months.

We've communicated with several institutions in order to arrange some citizen science work--mostly recording observations, a few scenarios for sample collection and preservation, posting to the organizations' social media when possible, et cetera. I've got a pretty good science background, and my husband is smart and increasingly interested/enthusiastic as I've shown him what we'd be doing 😍.

Has anyone else participated in citizen science work, and what was it?

[Steadman Uhlich]

That's an interesting and noble idea.
I sincerely wish you luck.

[belizesailor]

No, but very interested in learning more. Who did you contact? What type of projects? ...

[GordMay]

Congratulations on you participation, Meanderthal.

Some Citizen Science Projects ➥ https://www.google.ca/search?q=citiz...IuLs8weK2auADQ

[denverd0n]

Haven't done it. Hadn't thought of it. Now that you've mentioned it, though, I will have to consider it in the future. Thank you, and good luck!

[Tayana42]

Meanderthal, good for you. My wife and I would like to participate in Southern California so we are interested in learning more about your experiences.

[MV Wanderlust]

I hadn't heard of this before, either. Sounds interesting. Please post more as you get additional information.

[CaptTom]

Nice idea!

I've wondered if there were an opportunity to charter my boat out as an R/V. It's a slow, heavy hull that would make an excellent platform for this kind of work. There's berthing for 2 extra (plus us) and all the usual amenities. I'm licensed, but would have to look into insurance. I wonder if any universities or other researchers ever use charters like that.

[SV DestinyAscen]

I don't have the contact information available remotely right now. But NOAA is always looking for volunteers willing to deploy bouys in the south Atlantic, South Pacific and southern ocean.

[Mike OReilly]

Love it. Never occurred to me. Thanks for the prompt. I’m going to look into it.

Does anyone have any contacts for someone like me cruising Newfoundland these days? Memorial U is an obvious one. I’ll see...

[Toaster]

NASA has a nice project on clouds on their GLOBE platform. Supports iPhone and android I believe.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard...ce-opportunity

I contributed data to this on my Honoulu to SF crossing this summer. They have good training material so you learn a lot about clouds, which of course is a good thing for a sailor to know!

One great thing about this is that periodically, they will email you with a list of your observations, and matching satellite observations so you can compare the two. The purpose of the program is to improve interpretation of satellite imagery by having trained observers on the ground see what was really going on.

All you have to do is take observations near local noon (the app tells you when that is) and/or at times when satellites are overhead (the app tells you when that is also). It takes a few minutes once you are used to it.

Good luck!

BTW, also search for Secchi Disks. There have been some threads on that project.

[Paul Elliott]

We've participated in several NOAA-coordinated marine debris and water sample surveys during our trips between the U.S. west coast and Hawaii. Shortly after the Japanese tsunami we took two NOAA-affiliated researchers as extra crew on our return to the mainland, and they did extensive debris data collection. We brought along a buoy, but didn't find anything appropriate to attach it to.

[Meanderthal]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

No, but very interested in learning more. Who did you contact? What type of projects? ...

Prince William Sound Science Center

Kachemak Bay Research Reserve

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Topics: paralytic shellfish poisoning, forage fish observation and sample collection, sand lance observation, shoreline species health observation, bacteria concentrations, invasives hunting. Plus publicity--pictures and short video clips of difficult-to-access areas they can use on their social media accounts. Particularly pertinent, atm.

Before I started this thread, I searched Cruisers' Forum for other posts on citizen science and ran across two app-based projects--other posters to this thread have mentioned them: the Cloud app, and the Secchi Disk. I've downloaded both apps.

We still have a few weeks before we take off, so stuff is still developing.

Some of the stuff I would like to do, I can't, because the sample collection would require a freezer--which I do not have. I picked solar panels over a 12v freezer for our annual acquisition, lol. Right choice, for sure, but alas.

I won't have access to data all that frequently while we are out, but I can keep posting here as we figure it out, if anyone is interested.

[Meanderthal]

Originally Posted by Tayana42

Meanderthal, good for you. My wife and I would like to participate in Southern California so we are interested in learning more about your experiences.

In working through GordMay's search results link:

In California, there’s MPA Watch. Citizens are going out to the coast and monitoring the activity in the MPAs. There have already been over 17,000 transects. Underwater it’s the same. Divers are going down with their clipboards and counting. They’re participating in Reef Check, and contributing hard-to-collect data to biodiversity monitoring. This year’s Snapshot Cal Coast, a multi-week bioblitz organized by the California Academy of Sciences, collected over 13,000 iNaturalist observations from more than 600 participants.
---https://medium.com/openexplorer-jour...s-eb0adbfa06e3

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Meanderthal

In working through GordMay's search results link:

In California, there’s MPA Watch. Citizens are going out to the coast and monitoring the activity in the MPAs. There have already been over 17,000 transects. Underwater it’s the same. Divers are going down with their clipboards and counting. They’re participating in Reef Check, and contributing hard-to-collect data to biodiversity monitoring. This year’s Snapshot Cal Coast, a multi-week bioblitz organized by the California Academy of Sciences, collected over 13,000 iNaturalist observations from more than 600 participants.
---https://medium.com/openexplorer-jour...s-eb0adbfa06e3

Hi Meanderthal. I have participated in the first example here. The MPA program was called LiMPETS and was run through the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. It's geared toward students as the citizen scientists. I have also dived/ID'd fish with the REEF program off the Socorros and Florida, which I think is connected to (or at least the same concept as) Reef Check in CA. Bioblitz is one I've never participated in because always doing something else that weekend, but it reminds me of Coastal Cleanup day, which collects a lot of data on marine/coastal debris.

For Prince William Sound, you might want to check if anyone is supporting citizen science work in ocean acidification. Although without the instruments to measure, this might be hard to collect the relevant data. Salinity and temperature measurements might be of interest to local University researchers, but the instrumentation again might be an issue. Grad students could be a great resource to inquire on this.

Just curious. Is your husband's name Bill? If so, do you recall us meeting a long time ago in the Gulf of Mexico? Either way, I've been enjoying your posts. Your writing is really powerful.