Importance of citizen science application for integrated coastal management - Change of Gobies’ survival strategies in Tokyo Bay, Japan

The importance of general public participation to science for the Tokyo Bay restoration was confirmed through the “Edomae Goby Revival Project” implementation. The project was started as a symbolic example of a monitoring campaign with citizen science application under the second phase of the Tokyo Bay restoration began in 2013. It featured enhanced multi-stakeholder involvement. Since 2012, total-length data for more than 12 thousand gobies were collected in cooperation with the general public. This project highlighted the importance of general public participation to science for the restoration by showing change of survival strategies of the gobies in the bay. Furthermore, the potential of public science to contribute to the implementation of integrated coastal management (ICM) was also shown. This could be a clue to drawing public awareness and encouraging their ownership in reviving and supporting nature. The project has also demonstrated why we need an effective implementation of ICM.