Citizen Scientists and Ocean Conservation—Collaboration for Success

We present results from our work with autonomously governed outer island communities of Yap state, Federated States of Micronesia. These communities are on the front lines of ecological and cultural changes, and are facing... [ view full abstract ]

We present results from our work with autonomously governed outer island communities of Yap state, Federated States of Micronesia. These communities are on the front lines of ecological and cultural changes, and are facing declines in critical reef resources. The project is made possible through the active collaboration and involvement of citizen scientists. Participants join our team of ecologists and help collect data for the work. Each participant is evaluated for their skills and interests, and trained to collect appropriate data. The amount of data we collect is large, and there are several types of data that can effectively and accurately be collected by citizen scientists. We also get support from individuals whose areas of expertise (such as in industry or management) can help support the Project. We will present project approaches, results, and sampling designs. The sampling designs are also modified into data collection protocols for the communities in which we work, since they are essentially citizen scientists too. This has been a very successful approach for our work, and has enabled us to accomplish far more than we could have otherwise. Our work focuses on the inhabited islands of Ulithi Atoll, the fourth largest atoll in the world. Declining coral cover, problematic fishing practices, historical reef degradation and ‘invasive’ species are contributing to a decline in reef health and associated resources. The people of Ulithi rely on their reefs for food and protection from erosion, and the issues they face are ecological and cultural in nature. The traditional (indigenous) approaches to conservation and management were successful, and our approach is to combine traditional methods with modern scientific analysis to implement management plans. Diversity in approach, ideas, and methods is important, and citizen scientists provide ideas from different perspectives in addition to actual data collection.