Citizen Scientist in the News

The Australian Museum launched Australasian fishes, a citizen science project in late 2016. Like all such projects it is fuelled by interested individuals, who share a passion for nature and a willingness to contribute to the global knowledge of our marine environment and its sustainability. There are few projects which illustrate this dynamic as clearly as Australasian Fishes, as its recent success clearly shows.
Starting with an empty page in October 2016, the site now contains more than 15,000 images of fishes, all photographed, geo-located and classified, from around the region. Due to the dedicated work of nearly 550 citizen scientists, Australasian Fishes currently records almost 1,600 species . These volunteers not only capture images, but assist the project in the classification and identification of unusual species and unique events. The site’s journal contains stories about range extensions of Australian fishes, unusual mass congregations and requests from international scientists for specific images.
One of the project’s most active members, John Turnbull, was recently featured by the ABC as part of a project on the regrowth of crayweed in Sydney. This important project focuses on the re-establishment of critical underwater habitat, which had disappeared from many areas in Sydney and is a finalist for a Eureka Prize.
John is a well-known contributor to Australasian fishes, adding 1186 observations to the site and assisting with almost 400 fish identifications. He has discovered new species records for Sydney Harbour on more than one occasion and is a keen marine photographer and member of the Underwater Research Group.
There are many motivated and generous individuals like John who participate as citizen scientists in Australasian fishes. Future journal posts will feature some of them in order to recognize them for the contribution they make to better understand our environment.
This journal post was written by Australasian Fishes member, Harry Rosenthal.
Posted on August 30, 2017 04:14 AM by markmcg markmcg

Comments

thanks for your kind words Mark, and congratulations on the success of the Australasian Fishes project!

Posted by johnturnbull over 6 years ago

Thank you @johnturnbull. You and your colleagues are making it what it is. :) The kind words were actually written by @harryrosenthal.

Posted by markmcg over 6 years ago

Hi Mark,
Thank you very much for starting 'Australian Fishes'. Personally it's been a real buzz. Getting to interact with people ( Yourself , Sasha & Clinton) who know lots about what I see & photograph here in Port Phillip Bay and pass on your knowledge to me, then I pass it onto my family & friends who I share your great website with. I also get great value out of all the posts about every thing that's going on around Australia. I also like that you interact with the iSeahorse project as I have had interesting feedback (thanks Lily Stanton in Canada) via 'Australian Fishes'.
Everyday I look forward to what I can learn from you all. Keep it going.

All the Best,
Ken Flanagan.

Posted by ken_flan over 6 years ago

What a terrific comment! Thank you @ken_flan. I'm really delighted by how well the project is going and in particular how Australasian Fishes has become a community in which fish-folk can share information, IDs and comments in a place of mutual respect. It's early days still; I have big plans... :)

Posted by markmcg over 6 years ago

Awesome, well done John! Congratulations to everyone associated with the crayweed restoration project on winning the a Eureka prize!

And we'll done to everyone in the Australasian fishes project for making it such a success. Statistics we can be proud of, Mark!

I second Kens sentiment.
Cheers Richard

Posted by richardling over 6 years ago

Thank you @richardling for your kind comments and of course your contribution. You are also in our sights! @harryrosenthal :)
There have been over 100 outcomes/findings so far resulting from the observations added to Australasian Fishes. I'm yet to work out how best to 'get these out'. Thanks again. Mark.

Posted by markmcg over 6 years ago

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