Citizen Science Projects
eTick.ca invites the public to participate in the monitoring of ticks in Canada by submitting tick photos on eTick.ca for identification by a professional. Acadia is involved as a node for regional experts who assist in the identification of tick images submitted by users. The identification results, combined with other data such as collection date and locality can then be consulted and mapped so that all users may visualize the information related to any/all species for any given year and/or geographical area. The initiative is funded through an infectious disease and climate change grant by PHAC.
Striped AmBASSador is a citizen science program that provides information on Striped Bass and angling practices. Volunteers can engage in several ways: Catch Ambassador - collecting Striped Bass data such as lengths/weights, fishing location, date/time, and scales samples, Historical Ambassador - providing historical, traditional and local ecological knowledge and Angling Ambassador - recreational anglers helping to sample and tag fish.
The Department of Community Development has been supporting Gone Crabbin, a citizen science project at Kejimikujick Seaside National Park on the South Shore of Nova Scotia through the work of Anika Smithson (Masters in Community Development) and Dr. Alan Warner (Professor Emeritus). Gone Crabbin involves visitors to the Park learning about, categorizing and helping to remove the invasive green crab from the Park’s estuaries. These crabs are destroying eel grass habitat and estuary ecosystems all along the North Atlantic Coast. Anika Smithson has completed a comprehensive program evaluation of an off shoot of this program involving high school students learning about and catching crabs through their high school curriculum. To learn more about the project, visit: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ns/kejimkujik/activ/expedi-crabes-gone-crabbin Photo credit: Parks Canada.