How ‘Seasearch’ Gives Back to the Undersea World
- Gordon Cairns
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Citizen Divers Monitor UK Marine Life for Conservation Science
On its surface, Loch Carron is a beautiful, tranquil highland sea loch on the northwest coast of Scotland. The highlands there are home to a diverse range of wildlife, including pine martens, red deer, and oystercatchers. Hidden deep below the loch’s surface is an equally beautiful haven for starfish, flame shells, and beds of maerl, a species of coral-like red algae.
That this underwater world exists today in such abundant health can be credited to the work of Seasearch, a volunteer organization of citizen scientists who enjoy giving back to the marine world they love.
In 2016, it was the quick actions of one of Seasearch’s volunteer scuba divers that stopped fishing boats from destroying the loch’s seabed. When a local diver observed a fishing boat trawling the seabed for shellfish in an area already known to be of high biodiversity, he immediately got a group of divers together to collect the necessary evidence to have the loch designated an emergency nature conservation area. Their documentation was passed on to authorities who called an immediate halt to fishing in the area. Now completely recovered, Loch Carron has full nature-conservation-area protected status, known in Scotland as a Marine Protected Area.
In an interview with The Earth & I, Karen Boswarva, Seasearch coordinator for the Scottish islands of Orkney and Shetland, explained how quickly damage to the seabed can be missed.
Weather and predators can cover over evidence of destruction, she explained. “If those Seasearch divers hadn’t gone in when they did, the time it would have taken to get a dive team in and record that information would have meant the damage wouldn’t have been exposed.”
“If those Seasearch divers hadn’t gone in when they did … the [seabed] damage wouldn’t have been exposed.”
She added: “Seasearch has had a really positive impact on that area. [Loch Carron] has since been identified as the largest flame shell bed in the known world. Other priority marine features—maerl beds and kelp forests—are also in the same designated area.”
It seems only fitting to the marine scientist that these mollusks are so prevalent in this part of the world—a quarter of a billion flame shells live in Loch Carron alone—as they look like the Scottish novelty hats with ginger hair that anyone can buy from tourist shops. “The flame shell,” Boswarva said, “is the most Scottish of species. It’s got a mass of flame orange tentacles coming out of the shell.”
She describes the unique experience of encountering them underwater: “They’re really cool to see because you just see these little holes with bright orange tentacles sticking out. They just need the little pom-pom on a highlander hat to complete the picture.”
Monitoring Marine Life
Apart from carrying out such dramatic interventions, Seasearch also effectively monitors marine life and supports conservation efforts to reduce overfishing, habitat damage, pollution, and the spread of invasive species.
In the UK, most marine citizen science initiatives are driven by nongovernmental organizations like Seasearch that have already reported more than 800,000 habitat and species observations to the UK National Biodiversity Network.
Volunteer groups are crucial in filling the gaps that government bodies can’t plug, mapping the health of coastal ecosystems in ways that would be cost-prohibitive for professional research teams, Boswarva said. “You just couldn’t fund the amount of data that is collected by volunteers. As soon as you dive for work, health and safety regulations and work permits mean that it can cost thousands of pounds just to spend one hour in the water.”
“You just couldn’t fund the amount of data that is collected by volunteers.”
The group, which has been collecting data since 1988, covers the British coastline and is trained by the Marine Conservation Society. Seasearch’s citizen science initiative empowers recreational divers to contribute directly to conservation science, producing reliable datasets that support habitat protection, policymaking, and environmental awareness.
Diligent Documentation
Seasearch volunteers are trained in species identification and survey methods, and document everything from rare invertebrates to invasive species on specially designed forms.
Boswarva stressed how important it is to make sure these underwater surveys are exact: “The data we collect is vital. The key thing is to make sure it is accurate, as it goes onto the UK Marine database. The only reason it is allowed onto the database is because of our quality-control process. Multiple coordinators verify the data and input it.”
She added: “The data is used for conservation, policy, [and] management. It is used by the statutory bodies and the policymakers, so it is absolutely vital we maintain that data to the highest quality.”
All the data is included in Marine Recorder Online, a modern data management system for the UK that mainly focuses on species records and seafloor sampling data, such as sediment type and biotope information. It also produces maps, policy documents, and predictive models of habitats. In addition, Seasearch’s data is added to the National Biodiversity Network, which is publicly accessible to everyone—academics, family history researchers, even children doing school projects.
And the work of Seasearch is deeply appreciated by the groups who use their data, including NatureScot, “Scotland’s nature agency.”
NatureScot has “supported Seasearch in Scotland for many years now,” said Rie Pors, a NatureScot marine habitat ecologist and surveyor. “The skills and enthusiasm of their volunteers for marine life have in turn supported our own monitoring. The information collected by Seasearch divers, snorkelers, and shore walkers is helping us to map out the variety of life found on our seabed at a critical time for the protection of Scotland's biodiversity," she said.
A study carried out by Natural England that looked at data collected by citizen scientists, specifically Seasearch, concluded: “Maps created in this study are unrivaled in their currency, extent, and detail. As such, they can act as a ‘current status’ against which to assess future change.”
Fieldwork Fun
Boswarva signed up in 2010 after finding out about Seasearch through her university diving club. She was an undergraduate studying environmental science and conservation at the time. She really enjoyed working with the group, becoming a social media manager and then a coordinator. She sums up the work of the organization: “The purpose of Seasearch is to go out as volunteers and collect data as you are going about your fun recreational activity, making it more worthwhile to yourself by collecting data and information on the habitat and sea creatures that you see. To do that, you complete a survey form, which we teach them how to do.”
Global Connections
Seasearch volunteers are also playing their part in global marine conservation.
“It is really useful,” Boswarva said, “to have such a well-established citizen science project to be used as a model for other areas.”
They also get advice from similar organizations in other countries, she added. “Rather than reinventing the wheel for projects that fall under the same umbrella, we can adapt our own projects, giving us a backbone to strengthen them.”
Seasearch serves as a global inspiration for teams of citizen scientists to investigate parts of their world that are inaccessible to the vast majority of people—hopefully spreading the fun of environmental care and conservation to the far corners of the Earth.
*Gordon Cairns is a freelance journalist and teacher of English and Forest Schools, based in Scotland.
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