How You Can Help the Oceans From Your Doorstep

So many of us wish we could do more to help save our beautiful oceans, whether that be from plastic, climate change or habitat loss. Often however, it feels hard to really help out these beautiful landscapes, especially if we live far from the sea or have very little free time. Yet as technology develops, there are an increasing number of ways we can lend the oceans a helping hand from home, most requiring only a connection to the internet and a free mobile app or website. These new technological initiatives allow many of us to start acting right now, giving us the greatest chance of reviving our oceans to their former glory.

First off, when out and about on the coastline, there are literally hundreds of apps and websites which allow you to log your sightings of marine wildlife, from guillemots to killer whales, seals to corals. Many of these online databases only need you to collect very basic information, such as date, time, location and the number of animals you saw. This data is fed back to scientists who then have an enormous database packed full of information about our seafaring species, with this amount of information being impossible for trained researchers to collect on their own. From all these numbers, scientists can understand the health of various animal populations around the world and track their migrations. This data is even often handed to governments to encourage them to designate marine protected areas in coastal locations in which a high number of species have been spotted by the public as these may form important feeding grounds or migration routes for sea creatures. One example of this is the Australian based ‘Wild about Whales’ app which allows you to log any whales you have seen in the waters rising and falling around New South Wales. Not only is this a great tool for scientists but you too can access the interactive map which shows recent sightings, allowing you to head out and have the best possible chance of seeing a playful humpback. The app also provides information about each different species you might find, allowing you to decipher what exactly you are seeing. A similar project called ‘Wildbook for Whale Sharks’ asks you to upload photos of whale sharks and from these images, scientists analyse their spots to identify unique individuals and track their movements around the area. This project is running all over the world from Mexico to the Maldives to help us better understand and protect these gentle giants.

All around the world there are many more sightings apps which are specific to your area and in the UK, the Wildlife Trust also runs the ‘Marine Strandings Network’. This is a useful number to have saved in your phone as if you ever see an animal stranded dead or alive on the shoreline, you can ring this emergency number and a few of their 100 strong volunteer group will arrive to either remove the animal or treat it and move it safely back into the sea. This is a fantastic way to directly help some of our beautiful creatures which are in trouble, whilst the reward of seeing the animal released back into its home is one of the greatest satisfactions you can get within marine conservation. Many of your local animal rescue centres and sanctuaries will also have hotline numbers if you see an animal in distress so it’s worth finding their phone numbers and keeping them close by.

If you don’t seem to have much luck spotting some of our larger species out at sea, you can also help collect data along the tideline by investigating the rockpools at low tide, an activity children are sure to love too. Some regional marine charities are asking the public to take time out from their beach day or coastal walk to climb over the rockpools to photograph, and identify if you can, the species that are living in them. Over the years, scientists hope that this data will inform us about the impact pollution and climate change is having on our intertidal ecosystems and the incredibly important species which live in these zones. Did you know that molluscs actually help clean our water by filtering it through their shells? It is thought without the services these hidden pools provide, we would have to spend billions of pounds per year to get the same results, if we could replicate them at all. If you live inland and are feeling left out, don’t fear, some charities also arrange events such as river bug hunts which allow you and your children to wade into local rivers and explore the tiny critters which are living there. By identifying who is living in the river and at what numbers, scientists can gauge the health of the ecosystem. For example, if you discover stonefly larvae, researchers can determine that the river water is fairly clean and free from pollution as these critters are highly sensitive to oxygen levels and will move out of the area if the oxygen drops too low.

Whilst out on the river, or indeed at sea, on a lake or sat next to a bubbling stream, you can do your own small science project by testing the water. ‘EarthEcho’ is an organisation which sends out water quality testing kits to keen volunteers, giving you all the equipment you need to sample anything from the ocean to a wetland. The kit allows you to test for temperature, water clarity, acidity levels and oxygen levels, all of which indicate the level of pollution in the water which will eventually rush down to the sea. All you and your family need to do is transform into amateur scientists for a few minutes and then log the results onto an online database. There are several initiatives such as this around the world, with the ‘Blue Water Task Force’ asking people to collect water samples during their run, walk or swim on the beach and send them off to their volunteer run labs. Here the water samples are tested and compared to national water quality standards, ensuring the water is not only safe for our animals but for our recreation too.

Whilst out and about in your local area, maybe taking a walk from home or cycling back from work, why not conduct a quick two minute litter clean in your neighbourhood. Litter cleans don’t just have to take place on the beach but also on river banks, city streets and forests. There are so many different apps out there which allow you to log the rubbish you find, with ‘Litterati’ being a popular option for many. This app allows you to photograph the waste you collected and tag it to your location. Other users can check the map and if a hotspot of rubbish seems to appear maybe in the city centre or on the shores of a popular beach, keen litter pickers can all head out to remove waste and place it in the bin where it belongs. If you feel up for a bit more of a challenge, ‘The Great Nurdle Hunt’ asks you to seek out these tiny, multicolour plastic spheres on local river banks or shorelines and again, log them onto their website. It doesn’t matter if you have five minutes, ten minutes or an hour, all data is very gratefully received and is an easy way to help get involved in an ocean science project whilst taking your evening walk.

Even stuck inside the house, there are many ways to help the ocean using smartphone technology. ‘OrcaSound’ asks volunteers to listen to the recordings taped by hydrophones lying under the waves in the northwest Pacific Ocean. These microphones pick up the calming notes of the killer whale’s song and all you have to do is listen for any unusual or interesting noises which come through. In the long term, this hopes to help us decipher whale communication but in the short term, it could prevent any loud underwater noises such as drilling or shipping which are disturbing migrating whales. In the past, volunteers helped detect the use of military sonar in the area, something which causes whales to struggle to communicate and stop foraging for food. With the aid of local scientists, the volunteers across the world sitting at their kitchen tables at home managed to get the sonar stopped, allowing the whales to pass peacefully.

Whilst you’re looking to help the ocean at home, why not tackle your consumption, starting with unnecessary plastic. You could start by counting just how many pieces of plastic waste you throw away in a single week, a figure sure to shock you only a couple of days in. The ‘My Little Plastic Footprint’ app is a great tool for then cutting down on your plastic waste, helping prevent any more piling up in our landfills or entering the ocean. Once the app is downloaded, you can select the plastic items you want to get rid of, from toothbrushes to cotton buds to food packaging. The app will add these to your ‘plastic diet’ giving you tips on how to cut them out of your life and directing you towards sustainable alternatives. It also allows you to make goals and pledges to try and reduce your plastic consumption score, helping you slowly work your way towards becoming zero-waste. There are also many sustainable seafood apps and websites floating around the internet and in the UK, the Marine Conservation Society advises shoppers which species of fish are sustainable to eat each season with their top recipes listed close by.

If you want to make sure what you’re doing to help the ocean is completely up to date, eOceans has set up a new project called ‘Our Ocean in Covid-19’ which allows you to log the animals you have seen and the human activities taking place on your local coastline. This is especially useful as not only are fewer scientists able to access the seashore this year but we also really have no idea how this pandemic will affect our oceans. By collecting as much data as possible from around the world, scientists hope we will be able to detect any negative changes quickly, allowing us to act before damage is done.

As you can see, there are so many ways you can get involved with helping the oceans right on your doorstep or even from within your home. Just a quick internet search will give you tens of projects local to your area so the only question is, where will you start?

By Neve McCracken-Heywood