Very slick.
Normally, I would be full of praise, the more as I respect Ryan for SOS and the role it has played in the WA Shark Cull.
And still, it deeply irritates me.
Sharks represent but a tiny subset of marine research and conservation (and incidentally, global fisheries) and the available resources in terms of dedication, time, manpower and funding devoted to them are equally comparably scarce - and with that in mind, it really upsets me when I come across yet another one of those projects that reinvents the wheel and amounts to little more than a fragmentation and squandering of the little means we dispose of.
Because there's already eShark.
Crated by Christine Ward-Paige way back then when nobody cared about citizen science let alone Sharks, this is the original global go-to resource that has already resulted in a wealth of scientific publications and continues to fuel national initiatives like our GFSC (that is incidentally happening as we speak!) or eShark Thailand, and continues to accumulate daily data by divers worldwide via its online survey. As an example, Projects Abroad has been uploading data to eShark for over a year, meaning that together with the BRUV data, Beqa Lagoon is now one of the best documented Shark viewing spots anywhere!
And talking of which, a birdie twitters that eShark may soon become the cornerstone of yet another stellar initiative - so keep watching this space!
And talking of which, a birdie twitters that eShark may soon become the cornerstone of yet another stellar initiative - so keep watching this space!
And what about us divers.
Every week, we get inundated with yet more bloody requests to partake in some survey from bloody Whales to bloody Seahorses - so can we at least try and stick to one focal point and one methodology per group?
Yes I know I know...
