Is citizen science a valid tool to monitor the occurrence of jellyfish? The spot the jellyfish case study from the Maltese Islands

ABSTRACT Gatt, M.P., Deidun, A., Galea, A., and Gauci, A., 2018. Is citizen science a valid tool to monitor the occurrence of jellyfish? The spot the jellyfish case in the Maltese Islands. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 316–320. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The potential of citizen science in monitoring transient biological phenomena occurring over large spatial scales, such as the blooming of jellyfish species, has received increased acknowledgment in recent years. The Spot the Jellyfish citizen science campaign was launched by the International Ocean Institute and by the University of Malta in the summer of 2010, with thousands of jellyfish spotting reports having been submitted by sea-users through the campaign website, social media site, smart phone app or even through email, since then. The 2011–2015 submitted jellyfish report...