The Australian spotted jellyfish (Phyllorhiza punctata), a non-indigenous jellyfish species recorded from Maltese waters which is featured in the Spot the Jellyfish smart phone app
The beta version of the Spot the Jellyfish and of the Spot the Alien Fish smart phone apps has been launched through an ongoing collaboration between Prof. Alan Deidun from the Department of Geosciences, who coordinates the two campaigns, and students from MCAST who have developed the apps as part of their final year projects. The smart phone apps take these two citizen science campaigns to a new level by allowing users to report sightings of jellyfish and of alien (non-indigenous) fish individuals from our waters, as well as to glean information on each of the individual species featured within the same apps and background information on the two campaigns.
Citizen scientists can already send in their jellyfish and alien fish reports through a variety of ways, namely the campaign websites (www.ioikids.net/jellyfish and www.aliensmalta.eu), social media pages and over email (aliensmalta@gmail.com), with smart phone apps being the most recent report submission avenue. The two campaigns are funded by the International Ocean Institute (IOI), the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) and the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA). The smart phone app developers are expecting to release the definite version of the two apps in the coming weeks following the application of a number of operational improvements to the same apps.