Would you like to learn how to incorporate biodiversity recording into your coastal activities? Whether hiking, surfing, diving, swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding or fishing, you and your clients can contribute valuable information on our marine species to the National Biodiversity Data Centre. Become a Citizen Scientist with Explore Your Shore! and contribute to our knowledge of Ireland’s marine plants and animals.

Leave No Trace are collaborating with Explore Your Shore! to bring you a CPD course on Marine Biodiversity Citizen Science. Enhance the experience you offer to your clients by highlighting some of the fantastic marine wildlife and plant life around Ireland’s coast.

Learn how to identify common intertidal animals and seaweeds, discover how to take a great identification shot and submit your records to Explore Your Shore! find out about our fantastic partner surveys, and develop your survey skills.

This is a four-part course which introduces participants to Ireland’s Marine Biodiversity and how to record it. Each week we explore a different topic including how to survey and record intertidal marine plants and animals and how to identify some of our common intertidal marine species. The course is online and delivered by Dave Wall, Citizen Science Officer at the National Biodiversity Data Centre.

Once registered you will be invited to all four sessions. Zoom links will be provided before each session.

Course Dates, Times and Content:

• Week 1: 6^th April 2022 from 19:30-20:30
• Week 2: 20^th April 2022 from 19:30 -20:30
• Week 3: 4^th May 2022 from 19:30-20:30
• Week 4: 1^st June 2022 from 19:30 – 20:30

• Week 1: An Introduction to Marine Biodiversity Citizen Science
• Week 2: Seashore Spotter Survey & Seaweed identification
• Week 3: Big Beach Biodiversity Survey & Seashell identification
• Week 4: Rocky Shore Safari & identifying intertidal animals

Participants who attend all the sessions will be supplied with identification aids including seashell and seaweed identification swatches and posters, an Explore Your Shore! car sticker and project flyers.

Explore Your Shore! is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency as part of a project on Citizen Science recording of aquatic species, and their value as indicators of global warming and water quality. For more information see www.exploreyourshore.ie or visit our Facebook page @ExploreYourShore

Explore Your Shore! is a project of the National Biodiversity Data Centre

This event is only open to the Leave No Trace Accredited training network.