This project, funded by Deakin University and by the Victorian Government through the Port Phillip Bay Fund initiative, has been created to collect data on Australian great spider crabs and their aggregations. It's equally important to our research team to know when you have observed spider crabs or spider crab aggregations, and when you have not observed them. To understand the spider crabs' habitat requirements, we indeed need to know when and where they are found, and when and where they are not. Please add your sightings for spider crabs (Great Spider Crab - Leptomithrax gaimardii) in Australia by following the instructions below. We've also created video tutorials to make it more fun to understand how to log in sightings - links below!
Project introduction video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx5Q3oBhbvQ
How does this work? 🤔
TUTORIALS
✔️ IF YOU SEE great spider crabs (in groups/aggregations or alone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF-xjFJmK3o
❗ IF YOU DO NOT SEE great spider crabs on your visit (whilst out scuba diving, snorkelling, boating, kayaking, walking on or fishing from a jetty, etc), we also need to know for modelling purposes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqGKL7sxIUg
Instructions:
✔️ IF YOU SEE great spider crabs (in groups/aggregations or alone):
Create a sighting by clicking on "Add observations" on the project page.
- if you have photos: Click on "Choose files" and navigate to the relevant images (initially, it's best to upload one or two to avoid overloading the system, but afterwards, you will be able to add more photos to your sighting if you wish). Enter the species common name or latin name (Great Spider Crab or Leptomithrax gaimardii), the date of the observation, and the location (if you are at the site of observation and use the mobile app, it will automatically detect your location). In order to make it easier for the portal to find the location you are after, please type "VIC" at the end of the location. For example, search "Rye pier, VIC". If you're at a site that doesn't have a name Google map would find easily, you can manually enter the GPS coordinates in decimal degrees under "Lat" and "Lon".
Please note that observations can be set to 'obscured' (will be displayed on a map but as a random point within a radius of 0.2x0.2°) or 'private' (won't be displayed on a map at all) by yourself. For both obscured and private locations, only the admins of the project (two researchers at Deakin University, Dr Elodie Camprasse and Associated Professor Daniel Ierodiaconou). We encourage you to use these options for current sightings.
Fill out the reminding mandatory fields (Presence/absence, Number of spider crabs, What did you observe?), and optional fields (What was your maximum depth in meters?, Water temperature (in °C)).
Then click on "Save observation".
- If you don't have photos, follow the instructions above but do not upload any media.
❗ IF YOU DO NOT SEE great spider crabs on your visit (whilst out scuba diving, snorkelling, boating, kayaking, walking on or fishing from a jetty, etc), we also need to know for modelling purposes!
Create a sighting by clicking on "Add observations" on the project page.
Enter the species common name or latin name (Great Spider Crab or Leptomithrax gaimardii), the date of the observation, and the location (if you are at the site of observation and use the mobile app, it will automatically detect your location). In order to make it easier for the portal to find the location you are after, please type "VIC" at the end of the location. For example, search "Rye pier, VIC". If you're at a site that doesn't have a name Google map would find easily, you can manually enter the GPS coordinates in decimal degrees under "Lat" and "Lon".
Fill out the reminding mandatory fields (Presence/absence, Number of spider crabs, What did you observe?), and optional fields (What was your maximum depth in meters?, Water temperature (in °C)).
Then click on "Save observation".
🙏 Thank you for your help!
📧 For more information and to ask questions about this work, please contact Dr Elodie Camprasse (elodie.camprasse@deakin.edu.au).
Anyone who has an interest in the project can also register to be the first to get updates and results delivered to your inbox - https://redcap.link/ybjksj1z. You only need to provide your name and email address, so it's a really quick process.
Cheers,
Elodie
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Spider Crab Watch
