A Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia is asking the community to embrace the theme of this year’s National Science Week by becoming a citizen scientist and documenting endangered hammerhead sharks.  

National Science Week’s theme is Species Survival - More than just sustainability and Dr Naima Andrea López, from UWA’s Marine Futures Lab, completed her PhD on the critically endangered scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini).

“‘More than just sustainability’ means engaging with the community to help protect this species,” said Dr López.

Scalloped hammerheads typically inhabit the tropical region of Australia and have been rarely recorded south of Jurien Bay but, since 2011, there have been recurrent sightings within Perth metropolitan waters.

Dr López has spent many hours flying a drone in the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park and discovered there was a lot of excitement in the community about the hammerheads.

Image: Dr Naima Andrea López

“These sharks are very charismatic, and people like to swim with them and take pictures,” Dr López said.

“People are regularly sending me footage, asking questions and wanting to know how the sharks can be protected.”

Dr López saw the interaction with the public as an opportunity to support long-term monitoring of the species, which in turn can help inform management and conservation.

“I want to create a citizen science app where we consolidate all the information that we have about hammerheads in Australia and in particular here in WA,” she said.

“We will provide guidelines of what type of images we need for science because they have to be taken in a particular way to be useful.”

Dr López has noticed a decline in the visiting population since she began monitoring hammerheads in 2019 and feedback from the community suggests the same.

“We don’t know if we are seeing fewer numbers at the aggregation site because the sharks are being fished, or if we are seeing fewer numbers because the sharks are using other areas,” she said.

“By creating an engaging website, going to schools and building a citizen science project, we aim to support the local community as stewards of these critically endangered animals.”

Dr López hopes to have a pilot version of the website ready for the hammerheads return at the beginning of summer 2024. National Science Week 2024 runs from August 10 to 18.