Monitoring HABs requires a well established connection between scientists and environmental, food security and health authorities. It is a well-structured coalition whose central limitations are the lack of coverage of certain areas mainly due to budget-driven sampling constraints and, secondly, the slow response given the elapsed time since the problem is reported, the samplers arrive at the site, and the samples reach and are processed in the laboratory. Some of these difficulties could be overcome by the participation of the general public acquiring and transferring microphotographs of microalgae. The harmful benthic dinoflagellate Ostreopsis proliferates during summer months in Mediterranean beaches covering marine substrates (macroalgae, phanerogams, pebbles and sand) with a self-produced brown sticky mucilage. This mucus could be easily recognized by naked eye when people is trained to identify it. A pilot trial was developed in which volunteers were trained to recognize the mucilage containing microalgae and observe and photograph them using a cheap portable microscope. Citizen observations can increase the speediness in HAB detection and become a useful and complementary tool to established monitoring programmes.
Vila et al. (Fri,) studied this question.