The Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM), the Cos4Cloud project, the marine environmental services company Anèl·lides – Serveis ambientals marins, the environmental association Xatrac and three diving centres, Oceanicos, Escafandra Calafell and Plàncton diving have joined forces to promote the ‘Return to the Sea’ campaign, a citizen science initiative which seeks to collect the maximum number of observations of marine biodiversity on the Catalan coastline in July, August and September.
![](https://cos4cloud-eosc.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Foto-7_playa-de-barcelona_An·lides-1-1024x683.jpg)
‘Return to the Sea’ is encouraging citizens to (re)connect with nature after all these months at home, to discover a wide variety of marine species and to share it with others.
In addition to being a tool of learning, citizen science is used to get information which the entire scientific community can easily access. “It is a very economical way to get data on extensive areas. We want citizen science to become a part of research and decision-making with regard to environmental policies”, says Jaume Piera, the ICM researcher associated with CREAF and the coordinator of the Cos4Cloud project.