Citizen science in the marine environment: estimating common dolphin densities in the north-east Atlantic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Citizen science is increasingly popular and has the potential to collect extensive datasets at lower costs than traditional surveys conducted by professional scientists. Ferries have been used to collect data on cetacean populations for decades, providing long-term time series for monitoring of cetacean populations. One cetacean species of concern is the common dolphin, which has been found stranded around the north-east Atlantic in recent years, with high numbers on French coasts being attributed to fisheries bycatch. We estimate common dolphin densities in the north-east Atlantic and investigate the ability of citizen science data to identify changes in marine mammal densities and areas of importance.

Materials and methods

Data were collected by citizen scientis

SUBMITTER: Robbins JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7050547 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature