Citizen Science teams and "Research Grade" observations
Supporting multiple volunteers from multiple communities can be challenging.
Most volunteers have no Marine species knowledge and others have PhDs.
So we began by encouraging everyone to take loads of photos.
Each volunteer their own folder on Google OneDrive and could view all other observations.
We encouraged beginners to ID the common seaweeds and simply rename their images.
This proved difficult. But more challenging IDs were very difficult to coordinate across all volunteers!
The more experience members are "well-connected" and simply asked for help from their colleagues.
Less experienced members struggled to tell the plants from animals!
iNaturalist may provide a solution to our problems:
- anyone can drag & drop a photo and an ID is suggested for beginners.
- more advanced observers can submit multiple photos supporting correct IDs.
- comments can be added by other team members and guides/keys can be suggested;
- comments can include specific details which are required for a "Research Grade" observation.
This allows additional photos as needed. Or at least to encourage volunteers to consider taking more detailed photos on their next visit to the site.
iNaturalist experts also provide excellent suggested IDs.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/163269546 was an early submission and I had incorrectly suggested an ID as a "Common Prawn". An expert suggested "Rockpool Prawn".
This allows one to use an appropriate guide to learn the differences between the two species, in this case the "shape and number of dorsal teeth of the rostrum".
My personal goal is to develop a small area of expertise on one or two species and to support Irish observations.
But for "Greater Skellig Coast Hope Spot" in Kerry, it would be fantastic to see a growing community of Marine Citizen Science volunteers contributing observations of the habitats along our 912km of coastlines!
If there is anyone with experience of working effectively with team observations to develop Marine observation capacity then we'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!
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