Each year over 120,000 Tasmanians go fishing at least once. Imagine ....120,000 potential ‘citizen scientists’ collecting valuable data about the marine environment! Redmap invites the Tasmanian community to spot, log and map marine species that are uncommon in Tasmania, or along particular parts of our coast.

The information collected is mapped and displayed on the site, demonstrating, in time, how species distributions may be changing in response to changing environmental conditions.

Sightings are divided into two categories – those with a photo that can be ‘verified’ by a marine biologist, and sightings without photos that are called community sightings (anecdotal). All the information collected, with and without photos, is mapped and will be used to map the ‘story’ of what changes are occurring in the Tasmanian marine environment. Public response has been high and several other States are wondering how Redmap can be extended to their jurisdictions.

Hub scientists involved in the program include Graham Edgar and Neville Barrett from the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute and Peter Last, William White and Daniel Gledhill from CSIRO’s Fish Taxonomy and Biogeography team.

Download teacher resources, visit the photo gallery, get the latest news or log a sighting http://www.redmap.org.au/