Siren-Sea-Turtle

WHAT IS SIREN?

SIREN is a collaborative citizen science platform that empowers local coastal communities around the world and scientists to monitor, study and protect endangered marine mammals.

Imagine fishermen around the world taking photos of sharks, rays, dolphins on their phones and uploading those to the SIREN platform where scientists can analyze the observations and work with local governments to protect those species and create marine protected areas. Thanks to our network of fishermen, SIREN has already lead to the legal protection of 5 marine mammals on the Western Coast of Africa and we are now expanding our outreach to protect 11 endangered species of sharks and rays including one that we thought was extinct.

Imagine conservation scientists monitoring hundreds of turtles laying thousands of eggs and using statistics to improve the way they conduct beach patrols and how they protect/relocate the nests to maximize their chance of survival.

Our goal is to transform SIREN into a conservation tool that:

• allows conservation experts to focus on running their programs without the concern of developing their own monitoring software.
• simplifies the recording and use of field data to support clear conservation strategies.
• unites users across the globe, NGOs and governments, as collaborators instead of software customers.

WHAT IS SIREN Turtle?

AMMCO has developed SIREN-Turtles, a version of the SIREN App specifically tailored to sea turtle researchers for an easy and systematic collection of nesting beach monitoring data. The App can be used offline and is currently available on Android and as a web interface, initially in French and English. All the uploaded data is accessible in an interconvertible format on the SIREN-Turtle web console. The data collected through SIREN-Turtle follows the SWOT minimum standard and is readily available to populate the SWOT database or another database at the local, national, or global levels in just few clicks.

Users can easily process the data online, generate and export statistics and graphs of interest. SIREN-Turtle offers an easy data collection, secured storage, quick data processing, fast and easy data sharing and enhances the comparability across geographical areas and projects. The goal is to facilitate the accessibility and usability of nesting data and simplify the decision-making process in order to improve the protection of sea turtles locally, nationally, and globally.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Most of the funding we get is to run specific geographical turtle conservation efforts but we are looking for help to evolve the core software platform. As a result, we moved the SIREN software into a collaborative effort to get contributions in terms of code development and UI/UX. If you are a software developer or a UI/UX designer and interested in working on a project that has a real impact in the world, check our volunteering opportunities here. We are always looking for talents that want to make a difference. Plus you'll get the opportunity to apply and maintain your skills on a project that will beef up your portfolio and resume.