The San Diego-based non-profit Ocean Sanctuaries was founded in 2014 to create and provide support for marine citizen science projects. The Sevengill Shark Identification Project was one of its first citizen science projects, begun in 2010 in response to anecdotal evidence that divers were seeing increasing numbers Sevengill sharks off the coast of San Diego. This made the species an ideal candidate for a long-term 5-10 year) population study.
Although this shark has a wide range, it is subject to intense fishing pressure as a result of being restricted to inshore waters. Currently the World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists the Sevengill shark as “Data Deficient”. Data is lacking in most regions, making it difficult to determine the overall status of this species. However, it is currently assessed as “Near Threatened” in the eastern Pacific Ocean.” 1
This study has now expanded to Cape Town, South Africa, as part of a citizen science partnership with the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, as part of an effort to include citizen science photographic documentation from False Bay, South Africa, another area where this species is commonly seen. 2
How does this citizen science project work? Divers do their normal dive and if they observe a Sevengill shark and can take a photograph of the lateral view of the head and gill area without endangering their safety, they do so and then upload that photograph to the ‘Wildbook’ database at Sevengill Shark Sightings.
http://blogs.plos.org/citizensci/2016/07/01/using-citizen-science-to-track-sevengill-sharks/
References
http://blogs.plos.org/citizensci/2016/07/01/using-citizen-science-to-track-sevengill-sharks/
http://sevengillsharksightings.org/
Stats
- Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
- Views 422
- Comments 0