Shark Spy is a citizen science project led by the University of Otago that studies sharks living in coastal waters around New Zealand. Scientists are still missing important information about many shark species, and community volunteers can help fill in those gaps.
In this project, you’ll help review images taken from underwater video stations that were placed in the ocean to record marine life. Your task is to help identify sharks and count how many appear in the footage. This information helps scientists estimate how many species live in an area and how common they are.
Sharks play a key role in ocean ecosystems by helping keep marine food webs balanced. The data collected through Shark Spy helps researchers, communities, and conservation groups better understand shark populations and support efforts to protect them.
By contributing to this project, you’ll help scientists gather real-world data that can improve ocean research, conservation, and policy decisions.
To generate a volunteer certificate confirming your service hours, you must have a Zooniverse.org account.
Go to zooniverse.org, sign in, and click ‘More Stats’. Use the drop-down options on the upper-right of the stats bar chart to filter to a specific time period and/or project of interest. Then click on ‘Generate Volunteer Certificate’ (the button to the bottom-right of your stats bar chart).
