“There’s a lot of things going wrong with it,” she said.
Kim joined 61 citizen scientist volunteers at the Laguna Ocean Foundation’s one-day BioBlast event on Jan. 31 to get hands-on experience in the field that she wasn’t getting from her textbooks and labs at Cal State Long Beach.
Laguna Ocean Foundation Education and Leadership Manager Alayna Ader explained BioBlast as “a science program where you get individuals from the community involved.
“We’re going to use iNaturalist to record and observe as many different species as possible during that time,” she said.
iNaturalist is an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature. It even includes an automated species identification tool where images can be identified via a computer vision model trained on iNaturalist’s large database.
The event took place at many locations: Birding expert Bettina Eastman from Sea and Sage Audubon pointed out feathered species at Treasure Island Beach over by the Montage. A plant hike met at Willow Staging Area up the 133 to observe and identify plants, fungi, mammals, and insects. Tide pools at Shaw’s Cove and Crescent Beach were scrutinized, and an “Algae Walk and Talk” met at Heisler Park. Each group was accompanied by a trained guide.
Volunteers had different reasons for joining BioBlast. At Bettina Eastman’s birding gathering at Treasure Island Beach, Laguna Ocean Foundation board member Mike Capobianco explained why he was there.
“I want to learn about the birds, especially when I volunteer,” he said. “A lot of people ask about the birds that they see out there on the rocks. I’m not a marine biologist or a birder, so a lot of times I don’t know what they are. It’s super helpful to come out and listen to somebody who’s an expert in this area and I can learn and use that information to share with the general public and with people that ask me about the species that they see.
Ocean Foundation’s Amanda Mertens, another trained expert, told her volunteers what they might find in the tide pools of Shaw’s Cove:
“We are in a marine protected area, so there’s no touching of any kind,” she said “We hope to find lots of sea stars and maybe an octopus or two, if we get lucky. Some chitons or snails, sea anemones and hermit crabs are very frequently found around here. It could be upwards of 15 different species that we could find today.”
“Even rocks and shells serve a purpose here,” she said. “We’re observing with our eyes and using our phone, and we’re putting all of the information into the iNaturalist database to give that information to the scientists around the world and then they can really help to analyze it and see if there’s new species that haven’t been identified out here. The beauty of iNaturalist is anyone can go out and observe.”
In company with Amber Alvarado, Angela Anguiano enjoyed the tide pools.
Ader called BioBlast not only a winner but the first step in a continuing program.
“We were not only able to identify an abundance of species across Laguna Beach, but the number of community members coming together to help take a snapshot of Laguna’s biodiversity was exciting to see,” she said.
For a lot of participants, this was the first time they’d used iNaturalist.
“Our hope is that the event was an introduction the participants needed in order to become an active community scientist on iNaturalist year-round. After seeing the level of interest in this event, we plan on holding more of these throughout the year.”
Volunteers exploring the beaches and tide pools weren’t fazed by admonitions to “Wear shoes and clothing you’re OK with getting wet and dirty.” They collected 125 species and advanced Laguna Beach’s environmental awareness. They’ll likely be back for more soon.
Original article posted in The Laguna Beach Independent written and photos by Spencer Grant and Mara Casey