We just crossed 2 BIG milestones!
We just crossed a whopping 10,000 observations of 600 species of marine life on our MLOM iNaturalist.org project!
At Coastal Conservation Foundation we advocate and support open-access data, which is one of the reasons we host our database here on iNaturalist. Since we started 7 years ago, this data has been used by students, researchers and conservationists and has appeared in outreach, books, field guides, reports and legal petitions.
This is the largest baseline dataset of intertidal marine biodiversity from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Once corroborated, this data is shared with other global biodiversity databases while being completely accessible to anyone who wants to use it. As of today, the database has 10,878 observations of 602 species, contributed by 166 people. It includes species which are rediscoveries, first records from the region, from the country and even species that are new to science and yet to be described. Yes! All this from the shores of Mumbai!
What are we doing now?
Our documentation on these shores will continue and we will also include shores which we haven’t explored before. We have biodiversity records from 28 shores so far. Our focus now will be on including more sandy and rocky shores as well as mangroves in and around the city. This project will combine citizen science and research to create a robust long-term dataset of intertidal marine biodiversity. Parts of Mumbai’s coastline have been drastically altered in the last few years and there are more changes coming. This long-term marine biodiversity dataset will help us understand how the ecosystem has adapted to the anthropogenic pressures its under, helping us formulate strategies for it’s conservation.
How you can help
Our work until now has either been self-funded or paid for through our shorewalks, but it’s not enough. To scale our work to these new geographies requires a larger team and infrastructure. This is where we need your help.
Individuals can donate to us, companies can help fund our work through their CSR programmes.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it by making a donation. We are a registered non-profit organisation, so any donations made by Indian donors are eligible for a tax exemption under Section 80G.
You can donate to us at: https://pages.razorpay.com/support-mlom
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