A new citizen science app developed at The University of Western Australia allows ocean lovers and conservationists to share hammerhead shark sightings with scientists to support vital marine research.
Dr Naima Andrea López, a Wen Research Fellow with UWA's Marine Futures Lab, said hammerhead sharks were one of the world's most endangered group of animals.
"We need to engage with the community to help protect this species, so we developed the Hammerhead Hub to support long-term monitoring of the species," Dr López said.
"This app will help us build the scientific foundation needed to inform management for effective conservation."
Dr López has studied the critically endangered scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini), which typically inhabit the tropical region of Australia and have been rarely recorded south of Jurien Bay but, since 2011, there have been recurrent sightings within Perth metropolitan waters.
She noticed a decline in the visiting population since she began monitoring the hammerheads in 2019 and feedback from the community suggests the same.
The app will turn every verified sighting into part of a global dataset supporting research, monitoring and conservation.
"The app will help to consolidate all the information that we have about hammerheads in Australia and in particular here in WA," Dr López said.
"We have provided guidelines of what type of images we need for science because they have to be taken in a particular way to be useful."
The app features include new sightings, notifications, learn and quiz, latest news and your profile.
In the learning hub citizen scientists can find out what makes hammerhead sharks unique, get to know the different species, find out why they school and discover how to tell male and females apart.
Members of the community who want to become stewards of these critically endangered animals can download the app here.
