Looking for a new adventure? Become a marine citizen scientist today!
Clean Coasts Observer & Explore Your Shore! Workshops are coming to a beach near you.
Clean Coasts Observer is teaming up with the National Biodiversity Data Centre’s Explore Your Shore! project to empower volunteers to become citizen scientists and encourage local marine guardianship.
Clean Coasts Observer Explore Your Shore! workshops will be taking place around Ireland over the next 6 months. To get the most from your workshop experience, Clean Coasts is encouraging participants to complete the National Biodiversity Data Centre’s Marine Biodiversity Citizen Science Open Course. If you complete the online course and attend an in-person workshop you will receive a FREE Clean Coasts Observer Citizen Science Starter Pack!
2025 Clean Coasts Observers Events:
- The Great Rocky Shore Bioblitz on Flaggy Shore, County Clare
- Big Beach Biodiversity Survey on South Beach Rush, County Dublin
- Big Beach Biodiversity Survey on Courtown Beach, County Wexford
- Big Beach Biodiversity Survey on Greystones South Beach, County Wicklow
- Big Beach Biodiversity Survey in Wicklow Town, County Wicklow
Tickets are available from the 8th of June, in celebration of World Ocean Day.
Don’t see a workshop near you? We will be including more events throughout 2025 so keep your eye on our Eventbrite for a workshop near you! For more information about the National Biodiversity Data Centre, check out their website.
Get your Free Clean Coasts Observer Starter Pack!
To celebrate our partnership with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, Clean Coasts is offering our Observers a FREE Clean Coasts Observer Citizen Science Starter Pack! To receive your pack and become an official Clean Coasts Observer, you must complete three simple steps:
- Sign up to become a Clean Coasts Observer
- Complete the Marine Biodiversity Citizen Science Open Course
- Attend at least one Clean Coasts Observers & Explore Your Shore! In-person workshop event
For any queries about Clean Coasts Observer Initiative, email ccobservers@eeu.antaisce.org.
The Big Beach Clean Marine Litter Survey 2025
The Big Beach Clean takes place on the 3rd weekend in September every year. It is an annual call to action organised as part of the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), operated internationally by Ocean Conservancy. The event usually unites more than 20 million people in 180 countries, who come together to tackle litter.
For this call to action, communities and volunteers around the country remove litter from the Irish coastline and get involved in a worldwide citizen science project by recording and counting the litter you find on Clean Coasts’ Marine Litter Data Cards.
Taking the time to identify and count litter found on our coastline is important, it gives an indication of the scale of the marine litter issue and helps us to identify the types of activities and industries that create the most common litter items.
In return we can create campaigns to help eliminate these items from our environment and assist policy change.
To find out more, click here: BIG BEACH CLEAN
Clean Coasts Observer Events
Explore Your Shore! in partnership with the National Biodiversity Data Centre
For the past number of years we have been working with the National Biodiversity Data Centre to promote the Explore Your Shore! project to our Clean Coasts community. Explore Your Shore! is an ongoing Citizen Science project that aims to document the rich diversity of Ireland’s marine wildlife by encouraging the general public to take species recordings along the coast. Past events include, a 4-part online introductory course to the project and coastal species, and numerous fieldtrips led by Data Centre’s Citizen Science Officer, Dave Wall. The aim of these trips is to carry out Explore Your Shore! training and guide volunteers on what to look out for along the coast. The fieldtrips are ongoing and if you are Clean Coasts Volunteer or Observer we will keep you updated on any upcoming events in your region.
Find out more
For more information on Explore Your Shore! see www.exploreyourshore.ie or visit our Facebook page @ExploreYourShore
For more on Ireland’s Marine Biodiversity see HERE.
If you would like to connect with us and discuss partnering on a citizen science study or project you are involved in please email ccobservers@eeu.antaisce.org