The Shark Trust has launched a new smartphone app that makes it easy for anybody to get involved with shark science and conservation, from anywhere in the world.
The new app brings five citizen science projects together in one place, enabling users to report shark sightings, eggcase finds, basking shark observations, angling catches, and incidents of shark entanglement with marine litter.
Information collected through the app will provide scientists with a wide range of vital data to aid in the conservation of the 1200+ species of sharks, rays and skates that swim in our oceans.
Submitting findings to any of the five citizen science projects will build a logbook of each user’s research contributions, which will be saved in the user’s profile and shared with the wider community. There are also 50 collectable ‘shark cards’ to unlock as rewards for submissions.
The news of the app’s release comes as The Shark Trust’s flagship citizen science project, the Great Eggcase Hunt – which encourages members of the public to find empty eggcases (also known as mermaid’s purses) of sharks and skates in coastal areas – celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2023.
‘We’re really excited to be celebrating the Great Eggcase Hunt’s 20th anniversary this year,’ said the Shark Trust’s Senior Conservation Officer, Cat Gordon. ‘The project has grown substantially since 2003, when we received just 128 records in the first year, to having a staggering 50,212 individual eggcases recorded in 2022 alone. In total, we’ve received over 370,000 eggcases since the project began, and we hope the new app inspires even more people to get out and about in search of mermaid’s purses.’
The eggcase reporting section of the new app currently includes identification materials for species found in the northeastern Atlantic and Australia, thanks to a partnership with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Records can be submitted from outside these areas. and the Trust plans to add identification materials from other regions in due course.
The app is free to download from both the App Store and Google Play, with everybody from the occasional beachgoer to seasoned divers and anglers encouraged to get involved.
‘For a while, we’ve wanted to make it easier and more fun for people to identify and record their sightings’ said Paul Cox, Shark Trust CEO ‘We’re really excited to get this app out into the world and start to see more recorders getting involved with our projects.’
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