The World Federation for Coral Reef Conservation (WFCRC) gladly presents the Collaborative Beach and Coral Reef Registry. The Registry, consisting of an ArcGIS Survey 123 and Dashboard, is a user-friendly and open-source platform that allows users the ability to view, document, and download publicly submitted coastal and reef-related data. The Registry is built on a citizen-science framework that enables submitted data to be meaningful and captured by the public for the public. Not to mention, the Registry can be operated at the palm of a hand! While it is still in its beta phase, users from all around the world are invited to start using it.

At WFCRC, we believe the success of the Registry will support vast public usage and can be broadly shared in a manner that is focused on project areas from local to international. In other words, knowledge exchanges that are freely available for Registry users can reasonably address a broad range of priorities of local relevance spanning from science to health and commerce in their own backyard. Repositories with massive amounts of local knowledge could fuel the next wave of ocean exploration, marine management, coral conservation and restoration, and so much more.

While we invite submissions from all individuals, we hope to appeal to these five main types:

● Divers

● Boaters

● Angler

● Researchers

● Beach Patrons

Benefits of records submitted from various individuals include the following, but are not limited to:

● Marine managers will have access to consolidated and up-to-date records for the benefit of initiating and achieving conservation goals

● Eco-tourism will drive a renewed interest in local conservation

● Repository for past and present data 

● Identification of local hazards

● Identification of local restricted access areas (i.e., turtle nesting sites, jellyfish)

● Identification of wildlife sightings

● Coral and coastal data from the public’s point of view

● Past and present weather, wind, wave, and tide conditions

● Data to support marine education for all educators

…..all from one resource!

Ready to get started?! The Registry is simple and easy to use. If you’re looking to submit and view data, click the survey link and fill out the survey as prompted. Once submitted, the dashboard’s link is provided at the submission page of the survey that will take you to the dashboard. 

Check out the Visual Guide section for a visual walk-through of the dashboard and its functionalities.

During the middle to late Jurassic period, coral reefs began to appear in the rock record, the layers of rock strata that geologists, paleontologists, and other earth scientists use to help understand geologic epochs and the Earth’s evolution over the course of millions of years.

The rock record, with its layers of fossils and sediment, has led to the discovery and understanding of past events and helps scientists identify cycles and patterns, providing the evidence and framework and to make reasonably reliable predictions of what is to come.

While we know coral reefs have been on the planet a long time, data collection and retention is limited.

Many individuals, companies, and academic institutions have made great strides in capturing compartmentalized marine and geological data. Two of the more expansive reef records currently available are the NOAA Coral Reef Information System and ReefBase. 

However, much of the world’s information remains scattered across the globe, stored in different formats. It's not always accessible, well-known, or even shared. Without a structured and shared data-managing system, it’s often difficult to find information, or even to know what information exists.