Citizen science provides valuable data to evaluate elasmobranch diversity and trends throughout the French Polynesia's shark sanctuary.

ABSTRACT: Observers of the Polynesian Shark Observatory (ORP), a citizen science network organized mainly through the Polynesian dive centers, collected an unprecedented amount of data from more than 13,916 dives spanning 43% of the islands of French Polynesia between July 8, 2011, and April 11, 2018. The objective for this type of data collection, which is not accessible within the standard research context, was to provide a unique dataset, and the opportunity to explore the specific diversity, distribution, seasonality and abundance of many elasmobranch species spread out throughout the territory of French Polynesia. Since the data are based on random citizen observations, the spatial distribution was biased toward the most frequented sites and islands where scuba diving is most developed. Overall

SUBMITTER: Seguigne C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10032523 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature