Project Description

Because seabirds spend the majority of their life at sea and feed near the top of the food chain, changes in their populations are likely to reflect the changes occurring in the wider ecosystem, making them excellent indicators of the health of the marine environment. As such, many seabirds, are also considered a sentinel of change. A sentinel species is an organism, in this case seabirds, that we can use to detect early warning of risks to key ecosystems and by extension to humans.
Seabirds are declining worldwide; under threat from climate change, pollution, disturbance and competition with fisheries. We want to monitor, understand and protect these species, but we have lacked the ability to collect data on a large enough scale. It matters, because we know that seabirds, such as an Adélie penguin, show very different trends in their populations between East and West Antarctica, where they may be experiencing different environmental conditions and threats.

Penguin Watch aims to understand these threats and to reverse them through informing policy changes where we can. You can help by helping us classify thousands of images of penguins.