Atlantic Odyssey citizen science reaps rewards

An immature Masked Booby, photographed by Asia and Aranya BECK (ages 11 and 10) on sv MOXIE, documented that species hundreds of miles east of the Caribbean on the open ocean.

Cattle Egret, one of many sighted and photographed mid-Atlantic by sv GEMM and sv FLEUR DE SEL.
Cattle Egrets, originally native to Africa, have spread to South and North America, presumed by flying across the ocean.
(Photo by sv FLEUR DE SEL)

Thanks to the hard work of Asia (11) and Aranya (10) BECK on MOXIE logging seabirds during their Atlantic crossing during the very first Atlantic Odyssey, some of the birds they reported were identified as being not commonly expected birds in that area.

‘Congratulations! That is a great contribution!’ said Diana Doyle, who put together the information for the Atlantic Odyssey participants to log any sea birds spotted during the crossing. ‘I was so pleased with the photographs, because an expert could check exactly what kind of birds the girls saw. Their work was excellent.’

Diana submitted the reports to the Cornell University eBird database, an example of which can be viewed here.

As Diana writes in her article, Focus Your Cameras on Seabirds, seabirds are the last frontier of birding and are poorly documented. These elusive birds, which spend most of their lives at sea, are under dire pressure right now from pollution, fishing, and climate change. As Odyssey sailors visit the most under-surveyed part of our oceans, they are in a unique opportunity to make a contribution. Each vessel is what scientists call a “ship of opportunity.”

Asia and Aranya BECK on sv MOXIE (Photo by sv MOXIE)		This photograph of a tropicbird captured enough detail to allow it to be identified as a Red-billed Tropicbird, a nice report from a location that is very under-reported! (Photo by sv MOXIE)

The seabird logging program is part of the Atlantic Odyssey and Blue Planet Odyssey science program, as participants are encouraged to document their at-sea bird sightings, which are inputted into a global avian database for use by scientists and conservation organizations.

This map shows some of the locations of the Atlantic Odyssey bird sighting reports (and, west, of the Sawlty Dog Rally report)