become a citizen scientist
and help save sharks

Animal sightings

We want to know about the sharks or rays you may have encountered whilst out snorkeling, diving, fishing, drone-flying, or on any of your other fav ocean activity. 

Eggcase sightings

We’re also interested to know if you happen upon a shark’s eggcase, more affectionately known as a mermaid’s purse, while walking on the beach.

What is ELMO Africa?

We are a South African citizen science project collecting information on your sightings of sharks, rays and their eggcases to better and understand and conserve them.

We need 3 important pieces of information from you:

1. Photograph

Ideally, we need a photograph of the shark, ray or mermaid's purse you spotted so we can identify the species you found.

2. The date

We need to know when you saw the shark, ray or mermaid's purse so we can start to understand annual or seasonal trends in the sightings.

3. The location

We need to know where you saw the shark, ray or mermaid's purse so we can start to understand which areas and habitats are important to these species.

Our mobile submission app is currently malfunctioning.
To submit your shark, ray or eggcase sightings, please email the above 3 pieces of information to
[email protected]

Submit your sighting using our app!

“The greatest danger to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

Our numbers to date

320

registered app users
Mathew Grey

16,268

eggcase finds
Mathew Grey

26,565

animal sightings
Mathew Grey

Some previous submissions

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We send out biannual newsletters to keep you up-to-date with what is happening at ELMO! These include the latest statistics of your submissions, any events we have coming up news we have to share, and so much more.

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