The challenges of ocean monitoring require data from everywhere at all times, we need to involve society in all steps of the process to achieve the information necessary to implement evidence-based policies in coastal and ocean management. Citizen science is a promising tool to reach this goal.
Cos4Cloud organized a workshop that reflects on this topic: how to involve society not only to collect data but to include them in decision-making processes. Also, to use citizen science as a learning tool that contributes to ocean conservation: once someone knows marine biodiversity and its importance, you are more likely to take care of it.
The workshop explained several citizen science projects related to ocean monitoring using citizen science. In particular: Ocean Cities by Josep Lluís Pelegrí, the ICM-CSIC director; Australian Coasts by Libby Hepburn from ACSA; Wadden Sea by Soledad Luna from W-S World Heritage; Capturing Our Cost by Luigi Ceccaroni from EarthWatch Europe and Urban Beaches by Andrea Comaposada from Anel·lides- Serveis marins ambientals.
The workshop was a satellite activity of the event “A Predicted Ocean”, an Ocean Decade Laboratory organized in the framework of the United Nations Decade of Ocean for Sustainable Development.