Protecting and restoring marine communities is as much as a social challenge as an ecological one. Citizen science increases social involvement of community. Ocean Connect, a small NGO from the Gold Coast, established the Sea Slug Survey Citizen Science program and has seen 2,159 volunteers participate since the start in 2021. There are 8 key locations where data was collected for this project. The project allowed for greater community interaction, awareness, and education. A public platform was developed that allowed the community to learn and contribute to nudibranch diversity of the Gold Coast. An open access project page through Atlas of Living Australia stored the project data for use by the public and potential scientific studies. In 2021 a total of 84 species (within 55 genus) were recorded. 11 new species had been identified including a high likelihood of 3 undescribed species in the Janolus genus. We will present our journey of establishing a citizen science program as a small NGO, how our data is validated and how we can rub shoulders with academic institutions regarding science and data quality. We’ll address the hurdles that were encountered along the way and the future of citizen science for the Gold Coast.