The Port Townsend Marine Science Center will be conducting its third annual iNaturalist BioBlitz! The goal for this project is to document as many living species as possible within a 24-hour period in Fort Worden State Park. For this year’s event, we are making the entire experience available while still following all the guidelines for social distancing. If you aren’t going to be outside of your home, you can still follow along throughout the day by watching the results roll in.

It’s very easy to participate, and everyone is welcome. Before May 9th, sign up for a free iNaturalist account on their website (https://www.inaturalist.org) or with the iNaturalist app. On May 9th, head to Fort Worden State Park and photograph any living thing (including plants, animals, fungi, and everything else) you encounter, then upload your observations to iNaturalist. You can take photos with your smartphone and upload them to the iNaturalist app, or with a camera and upload them to the iNaturalist website when you get home. All of the observations that you make in Fort Worden State Park during the BioBlitz will be automatically added to our iNatualist BioBlitz page.

PTMSC staff and volunteers will be online to review your observations as they are uploaded and help you identify what it is you saw. If you are interested in participating remotely, this is something you can do as well! As long as you have an iNaturalist account, you can review any observation on our BioBlitz page and help identify it.

The BioBlitz will officially begin on May 9th, 2020 at 10:00am and end on May 10th, 2020 at 10:00am. Any observation that you make during this time will be added to our BioBlitz.

PLEASE observe all social distancing guidelines. In order to help visitors to Fort Worden State Park maintain a safe social distance, we are requesting that all BioBlitz participants register for the event.
Register here

If you have any questions, please send them to the PTMSC Citizen Science Educator AmeriCorps Michael Siddel at msiddel@ptmsc.org

A guide for getting started with iNaturalist is available at https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started

Helpful iNaturalist video tutorials are available at https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/video+tutorials

photo by Wendy Feltham