Spot the Jellyfish and Spot the Alien Fish smart phone apps will soon be launched through an ongoing collaboration between Alan Deidun from the Department of Geosciences at the University of Malta, who coordinates the two campaigns, and students from Mcast who developed the apps as part of their final year projects.

The apps are already available on the Google Play platform and will be available on the iTunes platform in the coming weeks after clearance from Apple.

The smart phone apps allow users to report sightings of jellyfish and of alien (non-indigenous) fish individuals from Maltese waters, as well as providing information on species.

Citizen scientists can already send in their jellyfish and alien fish reports through a variety of ways, namely the campaign websites (www.ioikids.net/jellyfish and www.aliensmalta.eu), social media pages and over e-mail (aliensmalta@gmail.com).

More initiatives within these two campaigns are planned for the upcoming months, including the publication of a manual on alien fish species found in Malta.

The two campaigns are funded by the International Ocean Institute, the Malta Tourism Authority and the Environment and Resources Authority.