[ECO]Citizen Science: The Gateway to Protecting our Planet

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Citizen science: The gateway to protecting our planet

Citizen science allows anyone to get involved in research projects with minimal experience required. Citizen science can include monitoring ocean tides, analyzing photos from trail cameras, and looking for monarch butterfly larvae.

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has been used for well over a century and offers many benefits to researchers and scientists. These benefits include research that can be conducted over a larger area and for a longer ******* of time. Additionally, data collection costs are reduced with the involvement of citizen scientists. Citizen scientists are able to aid researchers in better understanding our planet and get engaged in important issues. 

I work for a nonprofit called

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that specializes in shark and ray research in Honduras. The word for “shark” in the native Miskito language is ilili, which is where our organization gets its name. The indigenous Miskito communities live on the eastern Caribbean coast of Honduras, one of our main field sites in Honduras. At ilili, much of our research depends on the involvement of the community and citizen scientists. We’ve partnered with other local non-profit organizations to create databases of shark sightings and spotted eagle ray sightings in the Bay Islands of Honduras. 

I’ve been working on our spotted eagle ray database for over a year. Spotted eagle rays (Aetobatus narinari) are found in the Atlantic Ocean and are classified as endangered by the IUCN. They are part of the eagle ray family and well known for their distinct spot patterns on their dorsal side. In Honduras, rays are not protected under any legislation and are often targeted for meat in coastal artisanal fisheries. Spotted eagle rays are often caught in gillnets, and despite their endangered status, little is known about them in Honduras. 

With the help of local citizen scientists in Roatán and Utila, Honduras, we’ve been able to create a database of spotted eagle rays and learn more about how they use and return to habitats in Roatán and Utila. 

Here’s some insight into how the project works and what we’ve learned: 

We’ve been collecting photos of spotted eagle rays taken by citizen scientists for about two years now. Anyone who is able to take a photo of a spotted eagle ray in the Bay Islands is able to share it with us to understand this endangered species better. Most of our photos come from SCUBA divers, but some folks get lucky and are able to take a photo of a spotted eagle ray from a dock or while snorkelling. 

Spotted eagle rays each have a unique spot pattern, like a fingerprint. We used their spots to create a photo-identification database of spotted eagle rays in the Bay Islands of Honduras. We fingerprinted their pelvic fins (located near the base of their tail) with a photo-identification software called I3S Spot. This software allows us to find photos of the same individual, which are called resightings. We’ve identified 180 unique individuals and of those 180 individuals, 35 rays have been resighted. Resightings allow us to understand the times of year and geographical areas that individual rays may frequent. 

Other researchers throughout the Caribbean have created similar spotted eagle ray databases with the help of citizen scientists. Creating a master database for all spotted eagle rays in the Caribbean will allow researchers to determine if and how rays are traveling across the Caribbean. Understanding the migration patterns of spotted eagle rays is key to establishing proper policies to protect this endangered species. 

Initially, we thought spotted eagle rays were travelling between the islands of Roatán and Utila. The islands are less than 50 kilometers apart, and spotted eagle rays have been documented to travel much further distances. However, after analyzing 333 sightings of spotted eagle rays, we have never seen the same individual ray reported in both Roatán and Utila. This data is crucial to understanding the movements of spotted eagle rays and offering protection from their threats. 

We also incentivize people to submit photos of spotted eagle rays by inviting those who submitted the first unique sighting of a ray to name their ray. Once the photo has been processed and fingerprinted, we reach out to our citizen scientists to let them know if we’ve seen this ray before or if it’s a new individual they get to name. 

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Mr. Ray, a spotted eagle ray. Image: James Wilson

Mr. Ray, pictured above, was named by one of our citizen scientists, Elise Head. Mr. Ray is a male ray we’ve seen 11 times from October 2021 to February 2024 throughout the island of Roatán. On the island of Roatán, we have a total of 26 rays that have been seen multiple times. On the island of Utila, there are 9 rays that have been seen multiple times. 

In a world facing many environmental threats, we need everyone to participate in science to help us better understand the wide array of organisms that call this planet home. A better understanding of threatened species is needed to create effective policies to protect them. 

I encourage everyone to get involved in citizen science.

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is a great website to use to find projects that may interest you. Many projects involve analyzing images and can be done from anywhere in the world. A few examples of current projects include counting the number of penguins in images taken by drones, identifying chimps, elephants, and leopards from videos, and examining underwater photos of beluga whales to determine **** and age. 

If you’re looking for something more hands-on, reach out to local nonprofits to see if they have any projects you could help out with. No matter your background, you can make a positive impact by becoming a citizen scientist.

Share your eagle ray sightings with ilili:

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