Marine citizen science: Room for growth

The BioScience Talks podcast features discussions of topical issues related to the biological sciences.

The burgeoning field of citizen science offers the public an opportunity to participate directly in research and data analysis--and it offers scientists access to robust data sets that previously would have been impossible to collect. Unfortunately, research on citizen science itself has often been lacking, with most studies focused on existing participants, with little attention paid to the wider public's interest in these important projects. For this episode of BioScience Talks, we're joined by Vicki Martin of Southern Cross University, in Lismore, Australia, who describes the results of a groundbreaking 1145-person survey of marine users and their attitudes toward citizen science projects. We talked about the study's implications both for the general public and for researchers eager to catch a ride on the citizen science wave.

To hear the whole discussion, visit this link for this latest episode of the BioScience Talks podcast.

pic A turtle and diver meet, close up. Credit: Loren Mariani

source: American Institute of Biological Sciences