The Secchi Disk http://www.secchidisk.org engages any seafarer to help study the oceans’ microscopic marine plants, or ‘phytoplankton’. The phytoplankton underpin the marine food chain and globally, their abundance is altering due to climate change. We need to know much more about these changes and you can help when at sea by using a simple DIY piece of equipment called a Secchi Disk (the Secchi Disk was invented by the Pope’s astronomer in 1865!) and a free mobile app called Secchi, which is available for iOS, Android and Windows devices.

You can find out more about the Secchi Disk study by watching this short video https://vimeo.com/194387410. The Secchi Disk study is already the world’s largest phytoplankton study involving citizen scientists in hands-on data collection, so why not take part and make the study even bigger. The long-term study has no endpoint or geographical boundaries and you can take measurements regularly at the same place or as you travel.