Citizen Science is often the tether that ties researchers and the general public along a common nerdy path. Memebers of ATMEC have, over the years, participated in and spearheaded their own successful citizen science projects throughout the Indo-Pacific. We are proud to be continuing that tradition by incoporating a strong community outreach and educational component in our research by working alongside folks interested in taking another step towards marine biology. Below are some of our main citizen science projects that you can get involved in! To find out more about what Citizen Science is, check out this article here! Want to participate, get in touch with us either by contacting us or messaging us on Facebook!
The Facebook page ‘Sea Slug Thailand’ was created and is administered by a group of enthusiastic divers from various backgrounds and remains one of the most popular marine wildlife pages from Thailand. Divers and snorkellers throughout the country submit photos of these charismatic critters and thus contribute to one of the fastest growing biodiversity databases in Thailand. In collaboration with ATMEC, Sea Slug Thailand has begun the process of cataloguing and analysing the diversity and distribution of these remarkable marine animals in Thailand. The collaboration aims to provide insights into ecosystem variability across Thai waters and has curated over 5000 observations. This includes dozens of previously undescribed species requiring further investigation, pushing the boundaries of marine biology discovery in the region.
Project Seahorse is a remarkable organisation that aims to facilitate conservation and research on seahorse populations around the world. The ATMEC team are proud to be continuing the positive and productive relationship with Project Seahorse that was setup in the Gulf of Thailand with Conservation Diver, by collecting and providing data to their citizen science portal iSeahorse.org. Via our own research efforts and through teaching the seahorse monitoring course by Conservation Diver, we have already found a thriving seahorse population around the waters of the Mun Nai Archipelago. We also encourage the public regardless of background, to please submit photo records of wild seahorses to the project.
