Many of us depend on our phones to be, well, more than phones. They are our computers, our maps, our calendars and our cameras. They can also be our gateway into citizen science.
Beaches change over time. But traditional methods of monitoring shoreline erosion and recovery cycles, as well as long-term changes, can be both challenging and expensive.
Scientists can’t be everywhere all the time. But, collectively, beachgoers witness shorelines pretty frequently. And many of them have cameras in their pocket.
Crowdsourcing those photos, and standardizing them for scientific observation, is the idea behind CoastSnap. It’s an international network of camera mounts at beaches, with instructions for uploading photos.
Bryan McCormack is the Costal Process Specialist for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant. He said taking a CoastSnap is easy. There’s no need to create an account or upload any personal information.
He explained, “Put the phone in the cradle. Take a photo. Scan the QR code; it brings you right to the web page. You drop it in, hit submit, you’re good to go.”
McCormack said CoastSnap gets more data to scientists than they could capture themselves. And, he said, other methods of monitoring beaches can be prohibitively expensive.
“You need things like high-end scientific equipment that either has to go in the water or be operated by a scientist/researcher/engineer/technician, somebody that knows how to use that specific piece of equipment, to go out and do that monitoring," said McCormack.
The first CoastSnap stations in Massachusetts were installed at Town Neck Beach in Sandwich, State Beach in Oak Bluffs, and at the end of Hummock Pond Road on Nantucket. In August, two more were installed. One at Linnell Landing in Brewster, and the other at Mariner's Memorial Way, in New Bedford.
Chance Perks is Conservation Agent for the New Bedford Conservation Commission. He worked with McCormack at WHOI Sea Grant, and also with local students and other residents to site, customize and install the CoastSnap station there.
“I got the local vocational high school involved to fabricate the cradle," said Perks. "And then I went to a local business to actually fabricate, and we paid for, the post to be manufactured so it matches our standard in the city. We have a standard of appearance.”
That community investment is something Perks says will bolster CoastSnap’s citizen science mission.
He said, “It brought together a lot of different people thinking about citizen science, using technology to monitor costal erosion, being aware about the costal geomorphological action – you know, what’s happening out there.”
The photos captured at CoastSnap stations are posted online, where the public can view individual photos and time-lapse compilations. McCormack, from WHOI Sea Grant, said that accessibility helps community members observe what’s going on with their coastline.
“And, of course," he said, "it helps us out on the back end. The scientists and researchers have a really great data set to work with.”
McCormack said a good number of people use the cradles to capture family photos on the beach. And he says that’s fine, but he asks them to also snap a picture of the beach alone and upload it to MyCoast.org/ma.
