In October 2015 the initial Project Hotspot application was successful in securing funding in the first round of the Participatory Science Platform – Taranaki Pilot.
The project started in November 2015 and received incredible interest and support from the community, reflected by the hundreds of sightings reported on the Project Hotspot monitoring pages, high engagement on the Facebook page including viral posts and numerous articles in the Taranaki Daily News.
Although the first phase of Project Hotspot received sightings of threatened species from all around the Taranaki coastline, the main recreational groups and schools targeted were based in North Taranaki. The first phase of Project Hotspot will come to an end in August 2016 with a workshop held for end users with the purpose of communicating the main findings and recommendations of the project.
