Community-led Marine Training

The Virtual Training Tool

The Virtual Training Tool is designed to help volunteers practice their survey skills using the Community-led Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Handbook. The tool provides genuine marine footage from locations around Scotland which can be virtually surveyed, with feedback provided to find out how you got on. This provides opportunity to practice your biological recording skills.

Marine survey training

Our previous community-led marine monitoring project officer Caitlin Orr gives you a quick tour around the virtual training tool on biological recording and filling out the survey forms.

Where will you go on your virtual survey today?

We have provided virtual training that you can use as an alternative to field survey. Explore the Virtual Training Tool.

Online survey training

Are you interested in learning more about a specific marine topic or developing your marine survey and data skills? If so, explore the video recordings below of past online training sessions developed for communities and local groups interested in monitoring their marine environment.

Intertidal survey training

Join Dr Hannah Grist and communities/local groups across Scotland to learn more about intertidal surveys. This training session supports the rocky shore survey methods in the Community-led Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Handbook.

Watch the intertidal survey video!

Intertidal species ID training

Session 1 – Seaweeds: Join Dr Hannah Grist and communities/local groups across Scotland to learn more about taxonomy and how to identify intertidal seaweeds found along your rocky shore. This training session supports the rocky shore survey methods in the Community-led Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Handbook.

Watch the intertidal seaweeds ID training!

Session 2 – Animals: Join Dr Hannah Grist and communities/local groups across Scotland to learn how to identify intertidal animals found along your rocky shore. This training session supports the rocky shore survey methods in the Community-led Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Handbook.

Watch the intertidal animals ID training!

Subtidal species ID training

Session 1 – Marine habitats and species: Join Dr Karen Boswarva and communities/local groups across Scotland to learn about the different habitats found in Scotland’s seas and some of the key species you might find within them.

Watch the first subtidal species ID session!

Session 2 – Testing your marine habitats and species knowledge: Join Dr Karen Boswarva and communities/local groups across Scotland for an interactive subtidal ID quiz!

Watch the second subtidal species ID session!

Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) training

Join Dr Karen Boswarva and communities/local groups across Scotland to learn more about how you can use ROVs for your community-led surveys. This training session supports the subtidal survey methods in the Community-led Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Handbook.

Watch the ROV survey training video!

Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) troubleshooting training

Join Dr Karen Boswarva and communities/local groups across Scotland work through some of the issues groups have experienced so far when using ROVs for their surveys. This training session supports the subtidal survey methods in the Community-led Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Handbook.

Watch the ROV troubleshooting video!

MEDIN data skills workshops

Workshop 1: Learn more about the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN), data life-cycles and data quality, and controlled vocabularies in the first workshop run by MEDIN for communities/local groups participating in community-led marine biodiversity monitoring across Scotland.

Watch the first MEDIN data workshop!

Workshop 2: In this second MEDIN workshop, you will learn about the MEDIN data guidelines and how to enter your community data into the prepared survey spreadsheets.

Watch the second MEDIN data workshop!

Workshop 3: Finally, in this workshop you will learn about MEDIN discovery metadata, what it is and how to create a record.

Watch the third MEDIN data workshop!

These workshops support the community data journey. For more information, contact us at [email protected]

Blue mussel training

Join Dr Hannah Grist and communities/local groups across Scotland to learn more about blue mussels, their ecology, distribution and potential reasons for their observed declines. In this training we also mention ways communities/local groups can get involved in monitoring blue mussels. Survey methods to monitor blue mussels can be found in the Community-led Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Handbook.

Watch the blue mussel training!

Skate survey knowledge exchange

Join Orkney Skate Trust and Shark and Skate Citizen Science Scotland share their knowledge of and experiences with using Baited Remote Underwater Videos to survey skate across Scotland. They share some useful tips and tricks that your communities and groups could benefit from if you’re interested in starting your own BRUV skate surveys.

Watch the skate survey knowledge exchange event!

Underwater monitoring of species and habitats

Join Drs Hannah Grist and Neil Burns from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) alongside coastal community groups in a knowledge exchange workshop about subtidal underwater monitoring methods. The first half of the session looks into survey methods and gives a brief introduction to Priority Marine Features (PMFs) and biotopes. Then, discussions and tips are shared amongst the participants about aspects they find easy or challenging, and possible ways to improve community monitoring going forward.

Watch the underwater monitoring of species and habitats event.

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