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Citizen Science project Two young people carry piles of oyster shells on a dock, while others participate in a community cleanup by a canal.

CITIZEN SCIENCE

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If you are interested in volunteer opportunities, please contact Brittany Hall-Scharf

The logo for Adventure Coast Water Watch features two crossed tridents within a teal circle, with blue waves below. The text

Adventure Coast Water Watch

Each month, youth and adult volunteers collect and test water samples from different locations. The information they collect helps us learn more about our coastal and ocean environments. Their hard work makes this important research possible.

Florida Horseshoe Crab Watch Logo

Florida Horseshoe Crab Watch

In 2015, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) and the University of Florida started a citizen science program. The program teaches volunteers how to help scientists study nesting horseshoe crabs in Florida. Volunteers help by counting, tagging, and tracking the crabs.

Logo for the Florida Microplastic Awareness Project, featuring a fish silhouette with a plastic bottle inside its body, and the text

Florida Microplastic Awareness Project

The Florida Microplastic Awareness Project (FMAP) is a citizen science program. It helps people learn about very small pieces of plastic, called microplastics, that are found in Florida’s water.

Logo for Manatee Awareness Through Education & Stewardship (MATES) featuring a manatee silhouette in blue water with green grass.

Manatee Awareness Through Education & Stewardship

Save the Manatee Club and UF/IFAS Extension Hernando County are working together on this project. A group of volunteers called Manatee Awareness Through Educational Stewardship helps teach kayakers and paddleboarders how to safely share the water with manatees by following Manatee Manners.

Circular logo with the words

Monofilament Recovery and Recycling

The Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program (MRRP) is a program that works across Florida. It teaches people why fishing line left in nature can be harmful to wildlife. The program encourages people to recycle used fishing line at special bins and drop off locations. It also supports volunteer cleanup events to help keep the environment clean.

Florida's Bay scallop

Pyrodinium Monitoring (Scallops)

Bay scallops are very sensitive to changes in their environment. Things like freshwater runoff, red tide, dirty water, and pollution can hurt them. Because scallops only live for a short time, problems one year can affect how many scallops there are the next year. This is why it is important for people to work together to protect scallops and keep this popular summer seafood around.

Coastal Hernando County View of a calm Gulf of Mexico with a sandy shore and vegetation in the foreground, under a clear sky.

Red Tide Monitoring

Check the Red Tide Current Status

A clear plastic scallop sorter with a blue loop lies on a pile of various shells. The sorter has text that reads

Scallop Sorters

Florida Sea Grant UF/IFAS Extension Agents Brittany Scharf and Victor Blanco created an easy to use tool to help scallopers measure scallops while they are in the water or on their boat. Scallops that are too small can be put back so they can grow. This helps make sure there are more scallops next summer. You can get this tool for free at the UF/IFAS Extension Office in Hernando County.

A red wire crab trap with an orange bycatch reduction device, sitting on asphalt.

Bycatch Reduction Device

Starting March 1, 2023, all recreational crab traps in Florida must have funnel openings no larger than 6 inches by 2 inches. Each opening must have a Bycatch Reduction Device, also called a BRD. The device is free. To get a free BRD, please contact the office at 352‑754‑4433.