Ocean Citizen Science – Crosscutting the chasm between society and science

Climate change has its toll on every ecosystem of the world. Ocean basins exhibit substantial changes in their temperature, salinity, acidity and nutrient levels influencing the health and safety of human life. Every day, millions of ocean data are being recorded worldwide by the water sports sector. Those data could make a massive contribution to the scientific understanding of ocean science and in particular of extreme weather predictions. To integrate this vast amount of data into scientific research, the German Ocean Foundation has launched the world's largest citizen science initiative in collaboration with partners from the water sports sector such as Scuba Schools International. Its aim is to encourage water sports enthusiasts to collect ocean data in a simple but high-quality and comprehensive form that would be automatically made available to the scientific community via the marine data portal of the European Union, the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet). Starting out in dive regions, this initiative aims to channel diverse efforts and bring together an increasing number of stakeholders to promote ocean science. By building bridges between the scientific community and general public, we not only support scientific knowledge, but also significantly promote ocean literacy, marine citizenship and ocean protection through a sense of ownership.

This project complements A Liquid Future’s “Surfer Scientists” initiative that facilitates monitoring and mapping efforts in South American and Asian regions through surfing communities.