Science does rely a lot on observations that are being made in the field in order to better understand the world we live in. Citizen scientists are volunteers, people who are enthusiastic and passionate about what they do and assist scientists with their research and data collection in particular. Through observations of species, behaviour of these and collection of samples amongst other things, citizen scientists contribute invaluable data to the respective research projects.
Although the hype around citizen science is relatively recent (within the last few years), the concept has been around for a very long time. One of the longest running examples is the “Cooperative Observer Program” that the National Weather Service launched in 1890 in order get a better picture of meteorological changes in real time and to help with long-term climate studies ( NWS Cooperative Observer Program. What is the coop program? NOAA’s National Weather Service; 2014). Besides weather, bird watching and observations is a very popular field for citizen science. There are a lot of projects involving the observation of birds dating back as far as the 1880s when lighthouse keepers were asked to identify and count birds (http://www.ecology.com/2014/11/19/importance-citizen-scientists/). This project developed into the Christmas Bird Count (https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count) in 1900 and now in its 118th year.
Because the contribution of citizen scientists means that data can be collected in many places at once, this is a very effective tool to get information about a lot of different things including the occurrence certain species. In Ireland in particular, data collection involving such sightings of different species of plants and animals alike is quite common. It has been around since the 1960s where projects were developed for birds (Donnely et al. 2014). Donnely et al. (2014) looked at the role of citizen science in Ireland and I highly recommend reading this to anyone interested in what’s being done and what could be improved. They did get to the conclusion that projects with expert validation of data provide scientifically useful data.
This is exactly what I aim to do for this project. I cannot be everywhere at once and the project highly relies on the participation of everyone to submit sightings! Ideally a photograph should be sent to verify the species as this is what I can then look at and validate the species as sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference (especially for strandings of dead animals). For those of you who have not seen it, you can see our sightings form here (link) or just email us to kristina.steinmetz@research.gmit.ie. I am really grateful for everyone who takes a moment after being out to watch seals to just let me know where this was and how many were seen. These are such invaluable data that will help me to look at how the seals use the area and to analyse how many seals there are in the population.
Calvin Jones from Ireland’s Wildlife has kindly written a very nice article on the citizen science part of this project: you can check it out here (link). We did get quite a few sightings in already and I have made a map to show you the distribution of data so far. Sightings really are coming from all around Ireland and this is great to see!
Where doubts regarding the species occurs, photos were present to identify the species. Two of the visible strandings (white triangles) were attended and I could get samples from these. While I am always sad to hear of a dead seal, these are very valuable in terms of samples. Both of the attended seals were young individuals, one grey seal yearling in Killala (Co. Mayo) and one harbour seal pup in Waterville (Co. Kerry), and I was able to get different samples of these. Samples collected include hair, skin, blood, and bone. Having such a variety of samples from the same individual is very useful because I can test different techniques and analyse their efficiency in terms of cleanliness of the DNA isolated and sequences that I get from them afterwards.
Overall, citizen science is a field that is getting quite important for certain projects. My project is no excuse here and we highly depend on sightings. If possible, I would love to prolong the project and use sightings to monitor over a longer time even once I finish. I would be great to see any changes. For now, I really appreciate all the help we can get in terms of sightings. Thank you to everyone who has submitted data already, we could not do this without you! I will need a constant flow of sufficient sightings though, so please keep them coming! Whenever you come across a seal, I would love to hear from you. Even if time should be tide, you can just take a snapshot of the location and send that along to me together with the number of individuals and species :)