AVVISTAPP is an app designed to track the presence of the sea walnut - an alien species in the northern Adriatic. Although the sea walnut does not sting humans (it is a ctenophore and not a jellyfish), this animal can be considerably problematic for the marine ecosystem: it is a voracious predator that feeds on zooplankton (fish food), eggs and fish larvae. Due to the negative effects that the sea walnut can cause in the locations in which it is found, it has been included in the list of the 100 most harmful invasive species in the world. Since the summer of 2016, the sea walnut has been forming huge swarms (blooms) in the north Adriatic, causing serious problems for the fishing sector in the Grado and Marano lagoons.
AVVISTAPP is a tool that will allow everyone to actively contribute to monitoring the sea walnut invasion in the Gulf of Trieste. In order to use to it: recognise the organism, if possible take a photo and then send an alert via your mobile phone. In addition to the sea walnut, with AVVISTAPP, it is also possible to report other very common organisms in our sea, such as jellyfish, turtles and dolphins. The data provided will be collected and analysed by OGS researchers and will be made available to the entire scientific community in order to better understand our sea conditions.