Further to the post below, our own entymologist Jaime has put in a bid on behalf of CAA in collaboration with CSIRO. He’ll have more advice soon on how it will progress.
National Waterbug Blitz & Mayfly Muster
Got this today from the National Waterbug Blitz. More information in the Introductory Factsheet
We would like to introduce you to National Waterbug Blitz, Australia’s first nationwide waterway monitoring event, funded by an Inspiring Australia grant. This Spring, Australians are encouraged to become ‘citizen scientists’ and investigate how healthy their local waterways and wetlands are, simply by exploring and identifying what aquatic macroinvertebrates they contain. The type and number of waterbugs found in a waterway can tell us a lot about how healthy that waterway is. We are running training sessions all over Australia from August to November, with recreational fishing groups, fly fishers, Landcare, Natural Resource Management agencies and schools – anyone can participate. Please see attached Information Sheet and visit our website for video tutorials to see what’s involved.
To identify and record waterbugs, the Waterbug App has been specifically designed for this project. It’s a great, easy to use tool and replaces traditional data sheets in the field. It’s free to download, and you can choose to do a detailed Waterbug Survey or a quick Mayfly Muster. See more here about the app.
If you haven’t got the time to do a full Waterbug Survey (takes about half a day), consider just looking for mayflies as part of the Mayfly Muster. Mayflies tend to “opt out” when water quality and habitat conditions in a river become degraded (mainly around towns and cities). By finding the spot where the mayflies stop we can establish which parts of a river need our help the most. If you are a fly fishing enthusiast, you can also use the Mayfly Muster to record when mayflies are emerging, and in areas where other people use the app you can check on old data to see when “the hatch” is most likely.
If you would like more information about training sessions, please email or call us on 0421 769 336. EOIs for sessions for this Spring are open till 12th July.
Kind regards
Mandy
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Tel: 0421 769 336
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The National Waterbug Blitz Team
W: www.waterbugblitz.org.au
E: info@waterbugblitz.org.au
The National Waterbug Blitz Project is a collaboration between The Waterbug Company, Federation University Australia’s Centre for e-Research & Digital Innovation, along with Waterwatch Victoria, The Code Sharman, EnviroComm Connections Pty Ltd and NSW Waterwatch, and is funded through a Citizen Science Grant from the Australian Government’s Inspiring Australia program.