Welcome back to Term 3! We hope you had a great school holiday period and managed to get some seashore exploring in. Although it may not seem like it, entering in your data is a VERYimportant parts of taking part in an Mm2 survey. By placing your data into the Mm2 website, you make a permanent record of what you found and where. This can be very useful to others (including scientists!) who may want to look at the distribution of certain species over time. Below are some helpful things to make entering your data a quick and easy process.
How to Enter Your Data
Entering your data on the Mm2 website is easy! As part of our 'Mm2 A to Z' that we ran earlier in the year, we made a short video showing how to enter a Mm2 survey. You can watch this video on our Facebook page here.
Tips for Making Data Entry Easier
After being out on the shore completing your Mm2 survey, data entry is probably not the top thing on your to do list. You can enter your data anytime but to make this an easy process we have a few things we recommend doing during your survey:
Timing is key! Make sure you write down the time you started your survey and/or the time of low tide. Depending on when you visit the shore can have a big difference as to what you will find!
Record more than just a generalised name (e.g. snail). Try to identify the species with one of our guides with you to help figure out what you are looking at
Found something you can't identify? Read the section below on what to do next
Unsure? Unknown? Here's What To Do
Our guides include the most common species you are likely to encounter on the shore but what if you find something and can't identify it? Write a description of what your mystery species looks like, where it was found and take a photo of it. Send all the information to us at marinemetresquared@gmail.com and we will let you know what it is! Who knows....you might have discovered something rare like these students did (read about it here!)
Other Things to Record
There's more to record than just substrates and species! Other observations can be recorded and entered with your survey under the 'survey notes' section. You can record things such as:
sea temperature (using a thermometer)
clarity (how clean or dirty is the water? You can describe it or make your own 'clarity tube' and measure how far you can see through the water like in the photo below)
basic weather conditions (sunny, windy, rainy)
has anything of considerable impact happened recently? Things like big influxes of fresh water, pollution, a big event on the beach could have an impact on the species you find so is worth noting down
If you are on a sandy/muddy shore, don't forget to measure the RPD layer (learn more about this here)
Take a (Virtual) Walk on the Wild Side!
The New Zealand Marine Studies Centre hosted a series of 'Wet and Wild Walks' around Dunedin as part of the New Zealand International Science Festival. These were held on both the rocky and the muddy shores as well as underwater (using with a ROV - remotely operated vehicle). There was even a unique 'indoor' walk to a sandy beach when the weather was a bit too wet and wild in Dunedin! These walks were live-streamed and can be viewed on the New Zealand Marine Science Facebook page. The experts who ran these sessions had a lot to interesting things to say, so the vidoes make a great resource to be viewed in preparation before heading out to do a Mm2 survey.
Keep Up to Date with Us!
Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @marinemetre2. On social media we post relevant articles and activities as well as share what our Mm2 community has been up to. So we want to hear from you! Whether it is finding something weird and wonderful or simply just a great day out exploring - get in touch with us so we can post it on social media or under 'Community Stories' on our website.
Up Next....
Want to know if your local shore is in good condition? Find out how you can look for evidence of a healthy habitat in our next newsletter!
