SEALABS is a citizen science initiative by Ambiente Europeo designed specifically for the sailing community. It equips sailors with a simple onboard kit to collect seawater data while underway — turning offshore passages into opportunities for meaningful scientific contribution.

Participants gather measurements on key ocean parameters including temperature, pH, salinity and water quality indicators, helping to build a clearer picture of ocean health across areas that are rarely sampled.

What makes SEALABS particularly valuable is access. Sailors regularly travel through remote offshore regions — mid-ocean areas where traditional research vessels and monitoring stations are limited. The data collected contributes to understanding climate change, ocean acidification, pollution and shifting marine ecosystems.

Data collected through SEALABS is fed into wider European marine data systems, helping ensure observations contribute to broader scientific datasets and long-term ocean monitoring efforts.

By combining simple tools with consistent data collection, SEALABS enables a distributed network of ocean observers — where many small contributions add up to something genuinely useful for science and policy.