Studying sea snakes through citizen science
Résumé
The contribution of citizen scientists to herpetology programs has been increasing during the last few years, thanks to digital technologies. In New Caledonia, a program involving grandmothers to study sea snakes was launched in 2017. Since then, it has been very successful, allowing us to collect valuable data on sea snake populations and spatial ecology. As for many other citizen science programs, data collecting is not the only outcome of this program.
Due to its unusual combination of grandmothers and venomous snakes, our program attracted strong media’s interest. This mediatization in turn raised public and stakeholder’s awareness about sea snakes and their importance in New Caledonia’s marine ecosystems. It gives us opportunities to educate public and positively change attitude and behaviour towards sea snakes.