BOEM harnessing citizen science with new Ocean Alert mobile app

BOEM harnessing citizen science with new Ocean Alert mobile app © BOEM

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announces the release of Ocean Alert, a new mobile data collection app for marine megafauna sightings.

Collected data will help BOEM plan offshore energy and mineral development in ways that lessen the potential impacts to species such as sea turtles, sharks and whales and their habitats. BOEM developed the app in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as an expansion of NOAA's Whale Alert app.

Citizens can use Ocean Alert to upload images, sightings and other species information to the app, which seamlessly stores the data for resource managers. The free app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Ocean Alert is part of BOEM's larger effort to harness citizen science - data voluntarily collected by the public and shared with scientists - for various research projects. For the past decade, BOEM has drawn on the expertise of researchers and citizen scientists to fill knowledge gaps about the oceans and the species and habitats within them. This data helps BOEM plan offshore energy and mineral development in ways that lessen the potential impacts to species and habitats.

Learn more about BOEM and citizen science.