European Marine Citizen Science Week 2026: Exploring Marine Biodiversity Across Europe
From 14–20 September, citizens, researchers, schools and marine citizen science communities across Europe explored coastal habitats, photographed marine life and shared their observations through MINKA.
Initiated by the EU-funded BioEcoOcean project and coordinated by its team at Uppsala University, the week brought together local organisers and existing initiatives to raise awareness of marine biodiversity and encourage public participation in research. The Uppsala team coordinated the collaboration and worked with MINKA to support observation sharing across Europe.
The preliminary figures from MINKA currently show:
- 3,225 observations
- 516 species
- 64 observers
- 20 identifiers helping to identify species
Most observations came from Spain, Portugal and Sweden. Species identification and review are ongoing, so these figures may change.
A warm thank you to PHAROS, BioMARató Catalunya, BioMARatona Portugal, ANERIS, BiodivOcean, Fenomenalen, the local organisers on Gotland and Terceira, and the MINKA team. To everyone who organised activities, contributed observations, identified species or spread the word: you made this first edition possible!
We look forward to learning from this experience and reaching even more people and communities across Europe in 2027.
Together, we can improve our understanding of marine biodiversity. Every observation matters!
