MARINE organisms are on the move in Queensland and the Range Extension Database and Mapping project (REDMAP) is hoping to track them with your input. REDMAP is a website and smartphone app that lets you share sightings of marine critters that usually aren’t found along your marine coastline. Over time, REDMAP will use your “citizen science” data and photos to sketch a map of where Australian fishes and marine species may be extending their distribution in response to changes in the marine environment.
REDMAP allows Australians to collect their own marine data and share photos and stories of unusual sightings. You can easily view the results from other citizen scientists and see what conclusions REDMAP is making with those findings. Changes to marine organism habitats will have unpredictable effects on marine ecosystems and fisheries. By working together, scientists and coastal communities can begin to understand why marine organisms are moving house and predict the effects that the shifts of these functional groups might have.
Send in photos of any sightings of out of the ordinary marine organisms to redmap.org.au or download the REDMAP smartphone app.
For more informaation: www.redmap.org.au
