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.

Re-useRe-use section of Guidance

The Shark Trust Great Eggcase Hunt

Data requests are logged on a spreadsheet to track where the data goes and who has requested it. Data have been re-used by statutory bodies, students and the media.

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Known uses

The data have previously been used by Cefas to assess whether the common skate comprised two distinct species. The IUCN also used Shark Trust data to inform the Important Shark and Ray Areas Initiative in 2025, and the data have supported NatureScot Marine Protected Area designation processes. In addition, the findings have been featured by BBC Wildlife magazine and Countryfile.

Licenses

Currently the data are shared under a data sharing agreement but this will change once the data have been archived with EMODnet as the intention is to share under the CC-BY licence.

Re-use of other data

The Shark Trust have used data from other citizen science schemes, for example they have linked up with nurdle collectors and suggested that also collect data for the Great Eggcase Hunt whilst they are out. They approach other groups when needed, they are hoping to reach out to other groups such as Seasearch to encourage divers to feed their shark data into their database.

[The Shark Trust Great Eggcase Hunt sharing image] — The Marine Biological Association

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