SeaWatch-B

The North Sea is constantly changing under the influence of natural causes and human intervention. Climate change, sea level rise, establishment of offshore wind farms and beaches being protected from a 1,000-year storm. Meanwhile, we notify ocean acidification and settlement of exotic sea creatures, increasing jellyfish populations and plastic pollution. But there is also some good news: North Sea water contains less polluting metals and oil, and dog whelks appear, after thirty years of absence, to have rediscovered our coast. Yet, strange as it may sound, little or no reliable long-term data are available to comment on possible trends. As a result, we don't know the answer to questions like "Are there more or fewer jellyfish than, say, fifty years ago?" The beach observation network Seawatch-B wants to help solve this problem with the help of citizen scientists. To this end, a feasible and scientifically sound monitoring programme was developed. This initiative is part of the "good-sea causes' activities of VLIZ.

The Beach Observation Network SeaWatch-B aims to generate reliable long-term data on our North Sea and beaches using volunteering citizen-scientists. The generated data are crucial to study the environmental changes of our sea and beaches, such as pollution, climate change, overexploitation of ocean resources, etc. To this purpose, an achievable and scientifically sound monitoring programme was developed.