Marine Citizen Science (MCS) has emerged as a promising tool to enhance conservation efforts. Although the quality of volunteer data has been questioned, the design of specific protocols, effective training programs, and data validation by experts have enabled us to overcome these quality concerns, thus ensuring data reliability. Here, we validated the effectiveness of volunteer training in assessing the conservation status of Mediterranean coral species. We conducted a comparative analysis of data collected by volunteers with different levels of expertise, demonstrating improvements in data precision and accuracy with only one training session, thereby achieving values equivalent to those obtained by scientists. These outcomes align with the feedback received from volunteers through a qualitative survey. Finally, we analysed the data generated by volunteers and validated by experts using the developed protocol in the Coral Alert project from the Observadores del Mar MCS initiative. Our findings highlight the importance of proper training, expert validation, robust sampling protocols, and a well-structured platform to ensure the success of long-term MCS projects. Overall, our results stress the key role MCS plays in enhancing the conservation and management strategies designed to mitigate the ongoing environmental crisis.

海洋公民科学 (MCS) 已成为加强保护工作的有前景的工具。尽管志愿者数据的质量受到质疑，但具体方案的设计、有效的培训计划以及专家的数据验证使我们能够克服这些质量问题，从而确保数据的可靠性。在这里，我们验证了志愿者培训在评估地中海珊瑚物种保护状况方面的有效性。我们对不同专业水平的志愿者收集的数据进行了比较分析，证明仅一次培训即可提高数据精度和准确性，从而达到与科学家相同的价值。这些结果与通过定性调查从志愿者那里收到的反馈一致。最后，我们分析了志愿者生成的数据，并由专家使用 Observadores del Mar MCS 倡议的珊瑚警报项目中开发的协议进行验证。我们的研究结果强调了适当的培训、专家验证、稳健的采样方案和结构良好的平台对于确保长期 MCS 项目成功的重要性。总体而言，我们的结果强调了 MCS 在加强旨在缓解持续环境危机的保护和管理战略方面发挥的关键作用。