The Mona Geoinformatics Institute (MGI) travelled to Ghana, western Africa, January 2023, to conduct social surveys with local school children and teachers under a new project, spawned from the SARTRAC legacy, entitled SargSnap! – a citizen science initiative using photography to monitor sargassum.
During this exercise, MGI teamed up with our colleagues from the University of Ghana and the University of Southampton to engage with the local communities to document photographic evidence of sargassum beaching and its impacts on their livelihoods.
SARTRAC is a 3-year programme of research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) that is being delivered through collaboration among the University of Southampton (UoS as lead), Mona Geoinformatics Institute, Centre for Marine Sciences (MGI and CMS of UWI-Mona), the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES of UWI-Cave Hill), University of Ghana and University of York.
SARTRAC aims to understand global- and local-scale drivers of Sargassum across the Atlantic basin from the Caribbean to Africa, while identifying transformational opportunities for communities affected by the holopelagic seaweed.
Stay tuned for more updates about the status of this transformative intervention. For more information, visit our social media at: @mgi.blue @mgimona