A bit of history…

Many Canadians were first introduced to iNaturalist in 2017 as part of the Canada150 celebrations. iNat was the tool/platform chosen to hold all the observations collected during the bioblitzes held across the country as part of celebrations/events to mark Canada’s 150th birthday.

In 2018 it seemed logical to set up a global iNat project for Oceans Week. At that time ‘collection’ projects had not yet been released so people had to join the project and likely had to manually associate individual observations with the project. 239 participants shared observations – many of these iNatters were individually contacted and asked to participate! The process was tedious.

In 2019 focus was shifted to the City Nature Challenge. 2020 and 2021 were COVID years. It was our hope that people would be self-directed/motivated and if local restrictions permitted, they could explore coastal areas and add observations on their own during Oceans Week. That brings us to 2022. Setting up this iNat project may be last minute but most people by now should know that Ocean Day occurs on the same day every year!

On June 8th each year, we celebrate the ocean, its importance in our lives, and how we can protect it - World Oceans Day helps raise the profile of the ocean and inspire more involvement in helping to conserve this amazing resource we all depend on. During Oceans Week all around the globe events and activities are organized and all are encouraged to participate as it is up to each one of us to help ensure that our ocean is healthy for future generations.

For those of us who are lucky to live/play along the coast or work at sea or have opportunities to partake in ecotourism on the high seas we would like to encourage getting out and exploring nature. Recording and sharing our observations will help create research grade data for scientists working to better understand and protect nature. This is the vision of iNaturalist.

It is fitting that this Oceans Week challenge to share coastal and marine observations originates from Atlantic Canada as it was a group located in Nova Scotia, the Oceans Institute of Canada (OIC), located at Dalhousie University and led by its Director, Dr. Judith Swan, and supported and counseled by Haligonian, Elisabeth Mann Borgese, the founder of the International Ocean Institute, along with Peter MacLellan who first introduced at the United Nations (UN) Earth Summit in 1992, the concept of World Oceans Day (WOD) on behalf of the Government of Canada.

For more information on the history of WOD click here.

Publicado el mayo 28, 2022 08:39 TARDE por mkkennedy