The Pacific Whale Foundation research team has been hard at work creating a new ‘Whale & Dolphin Tracker’ app that is now available for download on the App Store and Google Play. This free app allows members of the public from all over the world to participate in citizen science by recording sighting of marine mammals. Contributors are able to use their mobile phone to record the GPS location of the animals, group size, observed behaviors, as well as upload any photos they may have taken. It’s an exciting way for the public to get more involved with the monitoring and research of marine life.
The Whale and Dolphin Tracker app was initially designed as a tool for PWF’s Marine Naturalists to record marine mammal sightings in the 4-island region of Maui, Kaho’olawe, Lana’i, and Moloka’i. Launching the public app will allow for a greater range of data collection in real time and overall will contribute to the global research database of cetacean species.
Additionally, users can find an interactive live sightings map on the Pacific Whale Foundation website which displays all sightings logged on the app within the past 7 days. Viewers will be able to use species and location filters to observe changes throughout the year.
This app was able to come to life thanks to a successful fundraising venture in 2016. Jens Currie, the Senior Research Analyst at Pacific Whale Foundation, is excited about the crowdsourcing opportunities that are created by the app: “Now that more users will have access to Whale and Dolphin Tracker directly from their phones, our crowdsourcing ability, and geographical coverage will expand, and so will our knowledge of whale and dolphin distribution”. He also added “We just published a research paper on humpback whale distribution using Whale & Dolphin Tracker data, and are excited about the opportunities this app presents for opportunistic data collection.”