Encyclopedia8 min read
Black-Eyed Goby: Two Inches of Nerve Over the Kelp Floor
The blackeye goby's hovering economy: how a 10 cm fish harvests plankton over reef edges, feeds the food web, and tells surveyors what a reef is doing.
Tom Okafor ·
#citizen-science
13 articles
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: Reading the Wrack Line with Volunteers
A Tidewright field note: twice a year, volunteers walk Tasmania's beaches counting cast kelp — because the wrack line tells us what the reef can't.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Explore8 min read
Keeping a Dive Log That Matters: From Memory Book to Citizen Science Data
A good dive log is more than a souvenir — it's a field notebook. Here's what to record, how to keep it consistent, and how your dives become usable data.
Tom Okafor ·
Explore9 min read
Tidepooling After Dark: A Different Low-Tide World
The night low tide belongs to octopus, crabs and hunting snails. How to tidepool after dark safely, what light to carry, and what you'll see that daylight hides.
Tom Okafor ·
Explore7 min read
Pencil and Slate: Underwater Sketching in Kelp Forests
A pencil, a slate and a slow drift through the canopy: how underwater sketching turns an ordinary kelp dive into serious observation practice.
Tom Okafor ·
Careers9 min read
From Citizen Science to Career: Turning Volunteering into Work
Citizen science is a genuine on-ramp to paid marine work. How to choose programs, build evidence of skill, and convert reef volunteering into a career.
Jack Callum ·
Encyclopedia8 min read
Giant Black Sea Bass (Stereolepis gigas): The Reef's Recovered Giant
Protected since 1982, the giant sea bass is easing back into California's kelp reefs. How scientists track the comeback, and what it teaches ocean restoration.
Dr. Elias Brandt ·
Atlas9 min read
The Derwent Estuary: Kelp Restoration in a City's Front Yard
A guide to Hobart's Derwent Estuary — its kelp and seaweed habitats, a century of industry, urban restoration at Tinderbox, and where to see it yourself.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Explore11 min read
How to Join a Citizen-Science Reef Survey (and Make Your Data Count)
Join a diver or snorkeller reef survey: the main program types, the training, the transects and how to make your volunteer data scientifically usable.
Tom Okafor ·
Explore8 min read
Fish Identification for Beginners: Learning to See Individual Faces Underwater
A beginner's method for identifying reef fish: the five-feature order that works underwater, how to use guides, and practice drills that turn 'a fish' into a species name.
Tom Okafor ·
Explore8 min read
Joining a Reef or Beach Cleanup: How to Make the Data Count
How to join a reef or beach cleanup above or below the waterline — and how to record what you find so it becomes useful citizen-science data, not just a trash run.
Tom Okafor ·
Explore8 min read
Citizen Science from the Shore: Beach Walks That Actually Help Kelp Forests
How shoreline citizen science — from iNaturalist to kelp-cast surveys — feeds real kelp forest research. What to record, how to join, and why it matters.
Tom Okafor ·
Explore9 min read
Build a Simple BRUV: Baited Remote Underwater Video for Beach Science
Step-by-step guide to building a baited remote underwater video station (BRUV) that records real fish counts for citizen-science kelp forest monitoring.
Tom Okafor ·