Redmap Victoria: Community-Sourced Marine Invertebrate Sightings with Photos

Redmap is a citizen science project collecting sightings of uncommon marine invertebrate species along the Victorian coast. The dataset includes verified sightings with photos and anecdotal community reports, with information on species, location, date, and optional biological and environmental data. Data is managed by the Australian Ocean Data Network and is subject to a three-year embargo, meaning it does not contain records from the last three years.

Use Cases

• Analyze shifts in species distributions over time based on the mapped community sightings.
• Compare the reliability of verified photo sightings versus anecdotal community reports.
• Model species presence in relation to environmental variables like water temperature and depth mentioned in the description.
• Study the spatial patterns of uncommon marine invertebrate sightings along the Victorian coastline.

Strengths

• Includes a verification mechanism where sightings with photos are reviewed by marine biologists.
• Collects optional biological data (sex, size, weight) and environmental data (water depth, temperature, habitat).
• Data is actively updated, with a last recorded update timestamp of 2026-07-09 23:07:34.679395.

Limitations

• Spatial elements have reduced accuracy according to the description.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is subject to a three-year embargo, limiting analysis of recent trends.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Community-sourced citizen science reports via the Redmap website.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-09 23:07:34.679395; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Victoria, Australia coastline