Snorkelers and Scuba Divers as Citizen Scientists

Snorkelers and Scuba Divers as Citizen Scientists is a concept that has grown in popularity over the last decade. Using a concept that is similar to crowd-sourcing, the scientific and academic communities have embraced citizen scientists. Many scientific projects do not necessarily need an in-depth scope of knowledge. While grad students have traditionally been a source of free or low-cost labor in the past, that source is limited. A citizen scientist is a person who has an interest in a certain field but may not have formal training.

A snorkeler or scuba diver that is a citizen scientist has many opportunities to support marine conservation activities. Coral restoration projects, reef health verification projects, biodiversity/ biomass studies, and underwater archaeology studies are just a few of the types of projects that citizen scientists who are snorkelers or scuba divers can assist with.

Proshot and Tidal Sports along with its owners are very ecology and conservation-focused, as am I. They support a number of projects such as "Saving the Blue". Overall, you will find that scuba divers and snorkels have had experiences that caused them to be more focused on the environment than most other people. Using your underwater skills, you can help the environment by becoming involved in a citizen science project.

NOAA Welcomes Citizen Scientist

A few years ago, the US Federal government passed the Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Act (5 U.S. Code § 3724) which provided guidelines and encouragement for recruiting citizen scientists. In January 2021, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its Citizen Science Strategy. In that release, they stated that “In 2019 alone, volunteers contributed more than 1.1 million total hours to NOAA citizen science projects.”

NOAA which is responsible for the management of our marine sanctuaries has a number of projects at each of their sanctuaries. Their other divisions such as Ocean & Coast, Fisheries, and Marine & Aviation also have projects suitable for scuba divers and snorkelers.

REEF Check One Of The First Citizen Science Marine Organizations

Reef Check was founded in 1996, making it one of the earliest organizations based on citizen scientists. The Reef Check Foundation is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of tropical coral reefs and temperate kelp forests. In 1997, they conducted the first-ever global survey of coral reef health. Back then, I was a recently certified diver and a reef check survey was my introduction to what I could do to help coral reef conservation. I even took “stewardship” of a small reef, periodically checking it for damage and removing fishing lines and other litter.

If you live in an area where you dive frequently and there is a coral reef or kelp forest, this might be a great way for you to become involved.

Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS)

The UK-based Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) is perhaps the most respected professional society in the underwater archaeology field. Their publication, the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, is the leading professional journal. While a professional society, they fully embrace the citizen scientist. They and their 23 international partners, present a number of short training programs to certify individuals to assist in fieldwork.

Some training programs can be done entirely online, while others have a hands-on field experience portion. The certifications are recognized by all the international partners and many government and academic organizations. They offer certification for both divers and non-divers.

You Can Help Stop Invasive Species

Sometimes, due to the action of man, an animal, insect, or plant is introduced into the wild where it does not naturally occur. If the species does not have any natural enemies, it may flourish upsetting the balance of the ecological system. Insects have destroyed millions of dollars of trees, the tiny zebra mussels are said to have caused over 5 billion in damages to water filtration systems, beaches, boats, and other infrastructure around waters in the United States. The largest marine threat in the Caribbean is the lionfish.

I learned to dive in the Indo-Pacific region where sighting a lionfish or two on a dive was possibly the highlight of the dive. These beautiful, slow-moving, fish are a joy to see. Native to the region, juvenile fish may be seen with a few others, however, adults are seldom seen in groups. Sadly this is not the case in the Caribbean and portions of the United States East Coast where they are an invasive specie.

These beautiful fish have long been a favorite of those having aquariums. Presumably, a few were released into American water. In the mid-1980s, lionfish were first observed around the Miami Florida coast. Under ideal conditions, a female can release thousands of eggs every 3-4 days, over 2 million in a year. Once they established a foothold, the range rapidly expanded into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. There are millions of lionfish now in the Caribbean, and they are not welcomed.

A Timeline of the invasion

The juvenile lionfish is only about 4 inches (ca. 10 cm) long and grows rapidly to an adult length of about 18 inches (ca. 46 cm). They are known to eat over 100 species of marine life found in the Caribbean, and size does not matter that much. They can eat up to 5 times their weight of food a day and can expand their mouths and stomachs to take in prey as large as they are. When they became established in the Bahamas, the populations of groupers and snapper were reduced by 67%. Most other species saw similar reductions.

One good point is they are delicious to eat, however, as they establish themselves in and around reefs or on the ocean floor they are not easy to catch. Spearing them is the best way to harvest them. Hawaii Slings and pole spears are the most common way to catch these fish, and in most places are even allowed where spearfishing is banned. You will also need a special bag to hold your catch in. Lionfish have venomous spines that can be very painful if you touch them. Once the spines are carefully removed on land, you can treat it as you would any other fish.

Each year, there are many derbies where divers and snorkelers compete to catch the most lionfish. Careful records are kept concerning the size and weight of each fish. A portion of the catch is kept for research purposes. The fish that are not kept are yours to keep and eat.

Many dive centers also will have lionfish events both as a promotional activity and a means to keep their favorite dive sites healthy. If you are diving in the Caribbean, please try to participate in one of the research activities or at least a lionfish hunt to reduce their numbers on the reef. Also, support the “If You Can Not Beat Them, Then Eat Them” movement. Have your catch cooked for dinner or visit a restaurant that has them on their menu.

This video gives an outstanding overview of the lionfish problem.

Can I Really Make A Difference as a Citizen Scientist?

As you read this, you may question, can you really make a difference? The answer is yes. I am going to give you an example where I believe I made a difference.

Years ago I moved to Olongapo, Philippines, and lived there for over 10 years. A city that had been severely impacted by a volcanic eruption a decade before. The eruption put a tremendous amount of ash in the city and surrounding areas with many structures having 3 feet (ca. 91 cm) or more on their roofs. The ash soaked up water from a severe storm leading to the majority of the buildings collapsing under the immense weight. Olongapo sits on a bay that prior to the eruption was known for crystal clear waters and a very healthy coral reef system. People flying into the area often commented about seeing the reefs and shipwrecks from the air.

The ash that fell on the city also fell on the bay covering the reefs in ash as well. Additionally, runoff from the land was heavily silted and further added sediments into the water. The result was that 90% of the reefs were destroyed. The bay has a small opening to the sea, so only a small portion of the water is exchanged. When I moved there, the situation had not changed much. Most of the reefs were still dead and the visibility was still poor. I, along with a few staff members from a local dive shop, selected 5 reef dive sites to monitor using the reef check system. Two of the reefs were in a marine protected area, two were in other sections of the bay and one was at the opening of the bay. The one at the opening of the bay had not been severely impacted by the ash. We did two surveys of each site yearly, one at the peak of the dry season and one at the peak of the wet season.

We submitted our findings to reef check each year, At the end of the second year, we presented our findings to the ecology department responsible for the marine protected areas. They were delighted as this was data they did not have. While the water quality was slowly improving across all sites, by year four it was clear that the protected sites were recovering better. In fact, new species were being found in the protected reefs that were not in the other two. This data lead to changes in how the areas outside the marine protected zones were managed.

The ecology department was able to show how meaningful our data was and in the sixth year, they received a grant to develop their own dive teams to do the research we were doing. Adding their divers to the project, the number of sites being monitored was expanded to ten. While it will still be decades before the water quality and marine life can be considered healthy, There have been improvements as shown by the data. More importantly, the data has led to better management of the entire area, closing the gap on the difference in the health of the reefs in the protected area and those not protected.

Plan Your Citizen Scientist Activity Now

As you plan your scuba diving or snorkeling vacations this coming year, please consider if being a citizen scientist is something you can do. Explore the organizations and activities listed here as a possible course of action for you. You can also search for opportunities online. There are a number of organizations that are looking for help. Many will ask for a small fee to help cover the cost, which often will cover accommodations, food, and diving for much less than just diving elsewhere.