Community-led Marine Survey Data

Community-led survey and monitoring can reveal lots of special marine life under the sea and on our coasts. Your survey findings can be used for locally relevant projects, for sharing knowledge with other like-minded groups across the country and contribute to the marine evidence-base to inform future conservation and management of Scottish seas.

Whatever you want to do with your survey findings, it’s important the data you collect is accurate.

Marine survey data lifecycle

We suggest you make data a key part to your marine survey project, getting together with others to identify the marine life in your survey. You can learn about the marine life we have in our seas and on our coastline!

Use the Community-led Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Handbook for lots of hints and tips for good data management.

Sharing your data

Want your data to be shared more widely through marine databases? We’re working on making this possible, ensuring each stage of data flow has appropriate quality checks. Specifically, through a pilot, we are working to create a data flow into marine databases and developing data guidance and quality procedures.

In the meantime, please contact the project officer in advance of your survey to discuss your data journey.