BOCA CIEGA, Fla. — If you’ve ever felt you missed your calling to be a scientist, it’s not too late. 

Many environmental organizations use what they call “citizen scientists” to help collect valuable data.

Tampa Bay Waterkeeper is a nonprofit organization that advocates for clean water in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. Officials say with over 10,000 people out on local waterways, the information they can collect is invaluable.

“They’re out on the water every day, every weekend, whether it’s for work or family giving them the tools to help out the science community here,"  said Justin Tramble with Tampa Bay Waterkeeper. "(It) really goes a long way because we’re essentially multiplying the reach by 10,000, we like to say it’s the eyes and ears on the water.”

Jacob Smith is a citizen scientist, who’s also a student at Unity Environmental University. He says more people should consider being citizen scientists.

Smith loves anything on the water. 

“As a kid, being around the environment, and just enjoying all the stuff around me. I would go out, and we always lived near the beach, and I would see tons of wildlife that I just loved and as you get older, you start to learn things about our environment and so I got more passionate about protecting these places,” he said.

Now, he’s turning his passion into his profession as he studies through distance learning at Unity Environmental University, and he’s also the site manager for ECOmersion, a company that rents kayaks and does guided tours in Pinellas County.

Smith says with so many people out enjoying Tampa Bay’s waterways, being a citizen scientist there is easy. Tampa Bay Waterkeeper even put QR codes on all of the kayaks.

“What these codes are is direct links to their website where you can report issues such as injured animals or pollution sources. We like to give everybody the chance to participate in citizen science who comes out here on our boats and so everybody is actually making a significant impact on our local ecosystem just by using these simple QR codes,” he said.

And while anyone can participate in science that way, Smith takes it a step further. Through Keep Pinellas Beautiful, he has received special citizen scientist training.

“Right now, I’m going to get a sample of water so we can analyze it and look for microplastics in this bay,” he said as he took a sample from Riviera Bay, where trained citizen scientists collect samples, then take them back to the lab to analyze them looking for microplastics.

“Going out and collecting this water and looking at it lets us see the abundance of microplastics in the environment. We can use that data to kind of determine different factors on how that microplastic is spread throughout the environment, and what we can do to reduce it in specific areas,” said Smith.

Back in the lab, Smith shows the process, first removing all sediment. Then, he takes a look using the microscope since microplastics are undetectable by the human eye. That information is then turned over to the “real” scientists to develop strategies on how to make the environment cleaner. 

“Having data is very important for scientists around the globe in order to actually come up with solutions to many problems we face, and citizens being able to take some of their time to go out and collect this data is an amazing resource,” he said.

Smith says even though being a citizen scientist is a volunteer job, and playing an active role in making a difference in the environment is very rewarding.