Students are asking for it!

 

We just finished hosting and leading a two-week field course for undergraduate students from Florida Institute of Technology. Many of these students were brand new to fish identification, so we provided them with a known species list to study and prep with, and also numerous different reference books and online databases. But when we put them in the field, the same hurdles still arose. Despite already being familiar with common names and basic pictures, there were still many fish that had to be detailed with short hand descriptions of color and shape. When all this time is spent note-taking, many other fish are missed in the process. For example, co-founder of Isla Mar - Evan Tuohy - an experienced scientist in fish census observed 32 different species on a dive, while our students observed about 10.

In one of our afternoon technical sessions, we mentioned we are developing a tool to assist with learning how to ID fish underwater - a tablet app that will put the reference in front of you, but also give you a way to conduct your surveys in the same platform. The response was well received!

One comment on Facebook by diver Emily Dawson stated "From first hand experience, we need this app!" as she shared our Experiment.com campaign link to her friends and family. Check out her video below that shares her first time diving in Puerto Rico!

You'll notice a variety of fish in Emily's video (and the invasive lionfish!) that these students spent two weeks learning to identify. Diving and snorkeling in the south and west coasts of Puerto Rico gave them plenty of hands-on experience in the field, but something was still missing. Despite the numerous dives and snorkel trips, fish ID is still a technique that requires hours and hours (and years!) of experience to become proficient.

Our app will certainly reduce the time necessary to teach this skill to new biologists. Additionally, it will increase efficiency in underwater surveys by eliminating time spent writing and thus increasing the speed and accuracy in fish ID and census. Our developer Keith Charles is working hard behind the scenes to bring this into fruition, now we need your help to fund the project and get it online!

Thank you for the overwhelming support and contributions in these last few days! We are now only 6 days away from concluding the campaign. Please continue to share this project with like-minded folks who will find this interesting and worthwhile! Your donations are greatly appreciated, and we cannot wait to make this freely available to everyone!