Running Photo Contest Awards Announced!

We have now completed our running contest funded by Blue World and the Australian Museum based on citizen scientists submitting observations on our Marine Biodiversity in Southern Sydney Harbour iNaturalist project page. I am very pleased to announce that the grand prize sponsored by PRO DIVE Alexandria (gift certificate and a two tank boat dive with all gear included) is awarded to user eschlogl. Many thanks for your amazing efforts!!! eschlogl made huge contributions to the project by submitting 490 observations of 174 species from either Parsley Bay or Camp Cove. Other top prizes from Sydney Dive Charters, Dive Centre Bondi, and Clove Lane go to users jenssommer01 (104 observations and 66 species), du81iner (82 observations and 54 species), and nikihubbard (71 observations and 33 species). We also have honourable mentions to users nickatherine, ihunter, la3r, and sarah-sydneydives, who will all received art prints signed by NSW and shark conservation champion Valerie Taylor!

The top six most observed species from Parsley Bay or Camp Cove based on 1357 total observations during the running contest included the Fanbelly Leatherjacket (Monacanthus chinensis), Common Stingaree (Trygonoptera testacea), Mourning Cuttlefish (Sepia plangon), Common Sydney Octopus (Octopus tetricus), the endangered White's Seahorse (Hippocampus whitei), and Bluestriped Goatfish (Upeneichthys lineatus). We cannot thank everyone enough for their participation during the running contest. The Marine Biodiversity in Southern Sydney Harbour project will continue with regular journal posts on eDNA results and iNaturalist observations of marine creatures of interest from these locations. In addition to needing your observations to guide management decisions around potential marine park zoning, there are a number of observations still categorised as "Needs ID", and so please do have a look through previous submissions to see if you can help confirm identification to get them up to research grade.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.