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Super Digital Fisher Contributes 10000 Annotations
Overview
![digitalfishers_help_explore.jpg](https://cdn.onc-prod.intergalactic.space/digitalfishers_help_explore_db507becdd.jpg) Citizen scientist Harold Smith has now contributed over 10,000 annotations to Ocean Networks Canada's video database using the Digital Fishers crowdsourcing tool. ![harold smith digital fishers leaderboard.jpg](https://cdn.onc-prod.intergalactic.space/harold_smith_digital_fishers_leaderboard_27f8b35a1f.jpg) Harold is our current all-time leader, and his annotations are helping scientists tackle questions such as: - What environmental factors influence the distribution of species in the deep? - What is the biodiversity associated with deep-sea environments? - How do species interact with each other and with their environment? We developed Digital Fishers together with the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies (CfGS) with CANARIE funding. Co-investigator Dr. Rod Dobell leads the involvement of CfGS with additional support from eBriefings.ca.
Teen Spots Hagfish-Slurping Elephant Seal
Overview
For as long as he can remember, 14-yr old Kirill Dudko has been interested in biology. As a young child, he enjoyed observing insects and would bring them home (to his mother's dismay). As he grew older, he became interested in deep-sea biology. After learning about NEPTUNE Canada on a Discovery Channel program, Kirill began watching live video streams from our seafloor cameras, and gathering clips of interest to post on his [YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/WorldofOcean).
Sablefish Countdown Redux
Overview
Citizen scientists around the world are invited to participate in a new sablefish counting study. Two years after our original Digital Fishing Derby, we are now launching a follow-up study, which will help researchers refine the results from the first study. The goal is to count sablefish, or black cod, that appear in a series of one-minute clips—almost 1,500 clips in total. # How to Participate Using Digital Fishers, count the number of sablefish (black cod) you see during individual 1-minute video clips. At the end of the 60-second clip, the video pauses. You can then select sablefish (black cod) and a corresponding number (0-12) from the dropdown menu under the Sealife category, as shown below. For this new mission, citizen scientists (you) are asked to count the number of sablefish that they see throughout the entire clip. Every sablefish. Even if it is only part of a sablefish or if appears that the same sablefish came back into the screen. At the end of the clip, the screen will pause. Participants can then select Sablefish and a corresponding number (0-12) from the dropdown menu.
New Digital Fishers Campaign: Feeding Deep Sea Critters
Overview
Calling all citizen scientists! Play Digital Fishers while helping a marine biologist better understand how creatures in the deep ocean live – where there is no light and food is scarce! Ocean Networks Canada is observing these deep sea creatures with cameras that collect huge volumes of video 24/7 and transmit the images to ONC data centre via the Internet. Your challenge will be to count and identify the animals in each one-minute clip (up to 500 of them!) that are attracted by the food patches that have been placed in Barkley Canyon’s installation at 890 m depth. The game has five levels, with reward cards earned as your experience grows. Find out who can “catch” the most animals? The “Feeding Deep Sea Critters” campaign will run for several months. Thank you to our citizen scientists for helping the world better understand our ocean planet.
New app helps citizen scientists collect ocean data
Overview
![Community Fishers users](https://cdn.onc-prod.intergalactic.space/17622070093_d66143047e_o_2a2df178a8.png) **NEWS RELEASE**
VICTORIA, B.C. — Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) at the [University of Victoria](http://www.uvic.ca/) and the Pacific Salmon Foundation ([PSF](https://www.psf.ca/)) are teaming up with citizen scientists to increase the quality and range of oceanographic data being collected through a new mobile app called Community Fishers. The app, developed by ONC, allows fishers and volunteer citizens participating in PSF’s “citizen science program” to collect data and upload it to ONC’s world-leading data management system, Oceans 2.0. From there, the data is archived, processed and visualized for scientists and the public around the world. “We’re thrilled that ONC can exercise its ocean innovation muscles to fill this gap in technology,” says Kate Moran, president and CEO of ONC. “This app has the potential to greatly increase the volume of ocean data essential for responsible ocean management.” The app sits on a tablet or smart phone and collects data any place at any time, which the operator transfers via wi-fi to Oceans 2.0. The citizen scientists include active and retired fishermen, vessel operators from Vancouver Island University, and other local mariners. As part of the US-Canada Salish Sea Marine Survival Project, the PSF is leading Canadian efforts in the Strait of Georgia to understand the causes of declines in coho and chinook salmon. It has rigged nine small privately owned boats with wi-fi enabled instruments to continuously measure water variables such as temperature salinity and oxygen content throughout the Strait of Georgia and Juan de Fuca Strait. Ocean Networks Canada built the app to automatically handle time synchronization, GPS location tracking, simple wireless transfer of data, and much more. The cost of developing the app was shared between PSF and ONC. “To understand what’s limiting Pacific salmon abundance in the Salish Sea, we need a large amount of very detailed data over an extensive period of time and covering a large geographic area,” says Brian Riddell, President and CEO of PSF. “This partnership will provide the professional collating and processing of data essential to the success of our program.” “Canada has by far the longest coastline in the world, yet Canada owns and maintains only a handful of dedicated research vessels to monitor this vast region,” says Eddy Carmack, a retired scientist from Fisheries and Oceans Canada who conceived the app idea. “This app will help automate many of the steps involved in data collection, making the process much simpler for volunteers.” The app was recently chosen as one of the top 12 submissions in The Economist’s Ocean Innovation Challenge, which asked for ocean solutions to help alleviate the tension between growth and sustainability. Community Fishers won the online competition, earning ONC a complimentary seat at the 2015 World Ocean Summit in Portugal this month. ONC is a world-leading organization supporting ocean discovery and technological innovation. ONC operates innovative cabled observatories that supply continuous power and Internet connectivity to various scientific instruments located in coastal, deep-ocean and Arctic environments. **To Learn More:** - [Salish Sea Marine Survival Project](http://www.marinesurvivalproject.com./) —30— Download video & imagery: VIDEO: [What is Community Fishers?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdS016BadEg&feature=youtu.be)
IMAGERY: [Citizen scientists using Community Fishers App to collect oceanographic data in the Salish Sea](https://www.flickr.com/photos/oceannetworkscanada/17622070093/in/dateposted/).
Sablefish study reveals citizen scientists are expert observers
Overview
Modern science is starting to take amateur scientists’ observations seriously. The impressive performance of over 500 citizen scientists who signed on for a study counting sablefish off the Tofino coast is heartening proof that we can all play a part in understanding the ocean, says one of the Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) scientists who co-authored the study. That’s a key takeaway for World Oceans Day on 8 June, notes scientist Maia Hoeberechts, ONC associate director of user services (Figure 1). “This study is about who can help science,” she says. “The theme for this year’s 25th anniversary of World Oceans Day is Our Oceans, Our Future, building interest and ability for individuals to make a difference within their own circles, in the community or at the global level.”
Your new Digital Fishers mission (should you choose to accept it)…
Overview
**The ocean needs you! With close to 100,000 hours of archived video footage⎯and more being continuously captured by Ocean Networks Canada’s (ONC) underwater cameras⎯you can help scientists answer important questions about the ocean. Play a fun video game that analyzes the behaviour of deep sea marine life.** How are changes in the upper ocean affecting the abundance of organic matter⎯food for deep sea marine life⎯on the ocean floor? How do seasonal variations in oxygen concentration affect flora and fauna in Barkley Canyon, off Canada’s west coast? As a citizen scientist, you can help ONC researchers study species diversity, distribution, and behaviour in this complex ecosystem (Figure 1).
A vessel of opportunity
Overview
This summer, Federal scientist Geneviève Tanguay joined the ranks of Ocean Networks Canada’s citizen scientists across the country who are helping to monitor climate impacts and environmental changes in the ocean. Between July and August 2024, Dr. Tanguay, Canada’s vice-chief science advisor, and her husband, Paul Gaudreau, sailed up the St. Lawrence River into the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and along the Atlantic Coast of Canada, collecting oceanographic data, and expanding the [data set](https://www.oceannetworks.ca/data/data-dashboards/community-fishers-data/) shared through ONC’s Community Fishers Program — a citizen scientist initiative on the three coasts of Canada. Dr. Tanguay collected data on seawater temperature, oxygen, and salinity levels at different depths in the St. Lawrence and coastal regions, contributing to efforts to monitor changes in ocean conditions that can affect ocean health and marine habitat. > Climate changes have significant effects on the waters of the St. Lawrence River, estuary and gulf ecosystem. The increase in water temperature and the lower oxygen content have reduced the availability of zooplankton and the overall biomass which in turn threatens the livelihood of the inhabitants. My husband and I were happy to bring more light on this phenomenon. – **Dr. Geneviève Tanguay, vice-chief science advisor, Government of Canada**
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