Exploring the potential for citizen science in monitoring South Australia’s Marine Parks network MOSAIC Citizen Science Project Final Report: January 2013 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Conservation Council of South Australia (CCSA)would like to acknowledge the Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) for funding this project. We would also like to thank the many people and organisations who assisted us in various ways, especially Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions, Robe Coast Care / Reef Watch, Peter Riseley, Peter Fairweather, Philip Roetman, DEWNR Regional and Marine Parks teams, Simon Bryars, James Brook, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Reef Life Survey, Conservation Council of Western Australia, Ayeesha Tulloch, Carla Sbrocchi and Patricia von Baumgarten. 2 CONTENTS Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. 2 Executive summary ................................................................................................................. 5 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6 What is citizen science? ......................................................................................................... 8 Why citizen science? ........................................................................................................... 9 Save resources .................................................................................................................. 9 Scientific benefit ............................................................................................................. 10 Serendipity ....................................................................................................................... 11 Independence ............................................................................................................... 11 Citizen science is not only science .............................................................................. 11 Examples of successful citizen science: case studies ............................................... 13 Citizen science challenges ........................................................................................... 14 Citizen science models ..................................................................................................... 14 Existing marine citizen science in South Australia.......................................................... 16 Introducing MOSAIC ............................................................................................................. 17 Strategic links .......................................................................................................................... 19 Key success factors ............................................................................................................... 20 Best practice citizen science project development .................................................... 20 Project design ..................................................................................................................... 20 Data management ........................................................................................................... 21 Data collection ............................................................................................................... 21 Data entry ....................................................................................................................... 22 Data storage ................................................................................................................... 22 3 Data access .................................................................................................................... 25 Data analysis and interpretation ................................................................................. 26 Quality control .................................................................................................................... 28 Volunteer management ................................................................................................... 28 Governance/insurance/safety ........................................................................................ 29 Friends of Parks ............................................................................................................... 29 Non-government organisations (NGOs) ..................................................................... 30 Proposed pilot projects ......................................................................................................... 32 Pilot Project 1: Ron & Valerie Taylor Marine Park ........................................................... 32 Pilot Project 2: Upper South East Marine Park ................................................................ 36 The next 18 months... ............................................................................................................. 41 Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 43 Appendix 1 Existing marine citizen science programs in South Australia ...................... 45 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This project investigated the potential for citizen science projects to contribute to monitoring, evaluation and reporting of South Australia’s Marine Parks network. The concept of citizen science is introduced, with an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of citizen science in practice. Citizen science projects are widely varied but a number of attempts have been made to categorise them and these are discussed in the report. The Conservation Council of South Australia (CCSA) has developed a new system of categorisation of citizen science projects, which is focussed on project study design and the expected level of support. The Monitoring Seas And Inspiring Communities (MOSAIC) project is a marine citizen science facilitation project focussed on the marine park network. As a partnership approach between the Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) and CCSA, MOSAIC has the potential to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of citizen science efforts to provide information to assist the monitoring, evaluation and reporting of the marine park network. Key success factors are discussed and the three most critical factors are identified as: 1. robust and relevant study design 2. early stage investment in data management and feedback systems 3. high-quality volunteer management. Current issues around governance, safety and insurance are also discussed. Thirty one potential citizen science projects are identified across the network. This information is also summarised in a table in Appendix 1. An audit of existing citizen science projects was conducted to prevent duplication of projects (Appendix 2). Two pilot projects were developed in greater detail and are ready to be implemented. The community participants have already indicated their willingness to be involved in the next steps. Twenty-four specific recommendations are made throughout the text and are collated on pages 61-62. Options for implementing citizen science activities over the next 18 months are also presented, including management of the two pilot projects and further investigation into what might be the preferred MOSAIC project partnership structure. 5 INTRODUCTION In September 2012 CCSA was contracted by DEWNR to investigate the potential for citizen science to contribute to the monitoring of South Australia’s (SA’s) Marine Parks network. This report discusses the benefits and challenges of citizen science projects in relation to the network and introduces the MOSAIC project. The report recommends strategies to maximise the success and effectiveness of citizen science contributions to the monitoring, evaluation and reporting (MER) program. The report identifies two specific opportunities for citizen science pilot projects in partnership with regional communities. As this project was initiated at the earliest possible opportunity, some key aspects of SA’s Marine Parks network had not been finalised. While the benefits of early development far outweigh the drawbacks, one significant consideration was the absence of final technical documents. For example, marine park zoning was only finalised as this project was nearing completion, and therefore the report has not been able to fully describe the detail of how citizen science can best support the MER program. Investigation of the potential for school participation in citizen science projects was specifically excluded. This report was also limited to investigating citizen science potential for the ecological monitoring aspect of marine parks, but citizen science projects could also extend to monitoring the social and economic aspects. Over the past few months CCSA staff have met with a large number of people with an interest in citizen science across South Australia and Australia. Two regional visits have been conducted, relevant to three marine parks. A stakeholder workshop was held in Adelaide, from which emerged novel concepts and ideas. CCSA staff attended DEWNR’s environmental monitoring workshop delivered by Prof. Hugh Possingham, and the 2012 Coast to Coast conference was used to discuss marine citizen science with those running these kinds of projects elsewhere in Australia. All these discussions and activities