A community-driven citizen science initiative that engages coastal communities — especially youth and local surfers — to collect and monitor environmental data at their local surf breaks. Using affordable and accessible tools, participants help map and track the health of surf zones and nearby marine ecosystems, turning their passion for surfing into scientific data that supports sustainable ocean management and conservation.

The project is co-designed with international partners in several countries and builds scientific capacity locally while also contributing data for broader decision-making, including at international levels like the United Nations.

Piggybacking off the data from our Surfer Scientists initiative, Algae Aware extrapolates real time shoreline ocean temperature and air temperature data and creates an alert for the community if the data is within the historical window of harmful algae blooms. This alert can help prevent exposure to ostreopsis, a toxic algae that creates flu-like symptoms and can further compromise the health of immuno-compromised people in the community.

This initiative is currently in its beginning stages and we hope to share more updates with you soon.