The project involved schools and local groups working alongside postgraduate marine scientists to establish monitoring sites, photograph and survey the marine community over time using Marine Metre2 techniques. The objective was to set up long-term monitoring sites and integrate the project into schools’ long-term science plans.
This project was made possible thanks to funding gained by the NZ Marine Studies Centre and the Department of Marine Science in 2016 from the Participatory Science Platform – Otago Pilot.
In 2017 further funding was granted which took the project to another level allowing schools and community groups to continue with the data collection. Scientists also collected data along the rocky shore using similar methods as used by the students and it was found that there was no statistically significant difference between the student’s data and the scientist’s data.