Press release
Is scuba diving one of your hobbies or are you a lover of or an expert in the sea's depths? In your spare time, do you enjoy observing aquatic fauna and flora?
Or maybe you prefer strolling along the coast -in the rocks or sand, whichever you like best-, your senses wide awake, attentive to any kind of seaweed, shell or shellfish?
In either case, you can become an occasional contributor to large-scale scientific studies. To do so, you simply need to post your observations on specifically designed websites, possibly adding photos of what you have found. All the data produced like this will help teams of researchers understand more about the distribution dynamics of marine species: displacement of species across the water and the seasons, settlement of organisms from other regions, etc. This is the basis underpinning what we call "citizen sciences", which are no doubt yet to prove their full worth... and which need you!
As part of the European PANACHE project, several citizen science programmes will be carried out in the Channel, both on the French and English side. Through greater cooperation between the two countries, the project aims to improve management of the ecosystem of this narrow and busy sea.
On the British side, citizen science programmes developed as part of PANACHE relate both to foreshore species and those found in natural pools and the underwater environment. Don't hesitate to go to one of the project partners' meetings; you will find them on the PANACHE website calendar: www.panache.eu.com. Once on site, professionals and volunteers will guide you, tell you what you can observe and enter your discoveries in a national data collection platform. Scientists will then be able to capitalise on this extremely rich information.
Otherwise, you can cross the Channel. The French citizen science programmes developed as part of PANACHE will concern marine fish for example, through the Fish Watch Forum led by the Association Peau-Bleue; and "non-native" coastal species, which come from other regions and may or may not be "invasive", via the BioLit observatory (led by the Association Planète Mer). Feel free to visit these associations' websites to find out how to take part.
So, get your boots, pens and cameras, or your snorkel and mask, because science needs you!
