CitSciOz23: When Citizens Invite Science - Marco Bordieri, VIZ

Author: Marco Bordieri, Founder of VIZ
Citizen science isn't always about citizens enrolled by researchers, sometimes it can be the other way around.
In 2019 a group of friends started a Facebook group called "VIZ - Sydney Diving Visibility Reports". In their best hopes, the community would grow enough to have someone posting underwater visibility conditions on most days, so divers and snorkelers could pick a day and place for the best experiences, that was it.
Four years later, VIZ has become the largest Facebook community for marine users in Australia, with 12,400 members from Sydney and its surroundings. The visibility reports aren't the end goal anymore, but rather serve as the fireside where marine enthusiasts gather, share experiences and discuss. Pictures of sea turtles are harvested from the feed, stored and classified, allowing the identification of 74 individuals. For the first time, information on the presence patterns, site preference and seasonality is available to both marine enthusiasts and scientists.
Long-time residents such as Billie and Brownie, having spent most of their 4 years in Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve, have become familiar to the general public, and with familiarity comes understanding and preservation of the environment at scale even among the non-users.
The results of the Turtle Tracking, curious underwater encounters during the week, condition outlook for the weekend and some pills of marine science are then broadcasted on ABC Radio every Saturday morning. For the first time, what’s happening underwater is brought to the 160,000 listeners on par with the more traditional news, police reports and weather forecast.
But it’s not just about sea turtles, the nonprofit community of VIZ is tracking 10 other species for seasonality. Using unique techniques, underwater maps of all the Sydney dive sites have been produced for all to use, either recreational divers or researchers. Members have reported the world’s southernmost specimens of Pocillopora aliciae coral, allowing researchers from UTS to establish a new survey site.
But the mission of VIZ keeps evolving and it’s now an established bridge between the marine community and the different stakeholders (researchers, universities, local government, DPI, Heritage, environmental organizations, industry).
VIZ is a self-formed citizens community who have enrolled science stakeholders in a mutually advantageous symbiosis, because of this we think it’s a quite unique example of reverse citizen science we would love to present and inspire others to replicate.