Shark Spy is a participatory science project that has been collecting sightings information on sharks around New Zealand with the aid of local communities since 2019. Since then, the project has seen the rate of shark sightings increase on iNaturalist for regions where it has been conducted, and a significant increase in confidence of science skills for school level participants. The project, in its past state, had been hinged on the presence of a visiting scientist to proceed in active data collection for a community. In 2024 the project has rolled out at a national scale with the aims of providing the means for communities to conduct self-directed monitoring without the need for a visiting scientist. Here we detail what the Shark Spy project has accomplished so far, tools we are using (e.g., Zooniverse, iNaturalist) and how the new direction of the project has increased the collection of shark demographic and general biodiversity data while empowering the community and schools with approaches and methods that meet their distinct needs.