Citizen Science Case Studies

The case studies below demonstrate the data journey for specific marine citizen science projects, covering their planning, collection, processing, preservation, sharing and reuse.

PlanPlanning section of Guidance

The Shark Trust Great Eggcase Hunt

Originally planned by Ali Hood in 2003, the Great Eggcase Hunt was a project born from a chance finding of an eggcase and from there it evolved organically, growing into the project that we know today. Click on the icons below to find out more about the main consideration made when planning the project:

Find out more...

Tools & protocols

The Shark Trust wanted data collection to be ad hoc and for people to be as involved as much as they want to be, there is an outlined methodology that people can follow on setting up timed or distance surveys but this is optional. Volunteers need a bag, camera or phone to take a photo and a ruler to measure the cases. Eggcases are collected at the beach and volunteers can submit their data via an online recording form or app. No level of experience is needed, just the ability to access a beach.

Licensing & permissions

Data are currently stored on a cloud system and therefore data are shared upon request via a request form and using a data sharing agreement. Eventually this will change as The Shark Trust intend to archive the data with OBIS UK and EMODnet and use a CC-BY licence.

Verification & quality control

Specimens are examined and verified by a team of trusted experts or long-term volunteers. More unusual finds are followed up with requests for more photos. The Shark Trust have developed scripts to help with the verification process.

Processing

At the start of the project there was no way of anticipating the volume of records that The Shark Trust now receives and although not planned originally, they are currently converting data into Darwin Core format to enable data submission into EMODnet.

Sharing

Currently data is shared upon request, request forms are available and data sharing agreements are used.

[The Shark Trust Great Eggcase Hunt plan image] — James Harris, Great Eggcase Hunt

Next (Collect) Planning section of Guidance Back Home