Creating fish identification guide - require assistance

[Arsalan Ahmed]

Hey guys

I've been working on a site to not only help people identify fish when they travel to a location but to also be able to look up which fish/others may be found in different countries by category (fish categories as well as probability to see).

I also want to allow for the site to sort of become a guide for people to go and check off which fish they have seen (kind of how bird watchers do so on a book).

Currently, I'm working on the back end piece and I was looking for some additional assistance. Currently, I'm building out the database for Bonaire.

If anyone is willing to allow me to use pictures of fish they have taken, that would be awesome. I'm trying to keep the site completely legit so I don't want to use other people's copyrighted material without permission.

If you have a gallery I can utilize, please send me a PM.

The site will be Reef Watchers: Fish Identification at it's finest but other than a rudimentary front page, most of the work is going into the database side.

Appreciate any help as far as the pictures go. Thank you.

 

[tursiops]

With all due respect to your ideas and passion, I think you are reinventing the wheel.
See Reef.org for approaching a quarter-million fish surveys by divers.
Perhaps you could be the front end for their data bases....which are not the easiest things to get at and have basically no GUI.

 

[Arsalan Ahmed]

With all due respect to your ideas and passion, I think you are reinventing the wheel.
See Reef.org for approaching a quarter-million fish surveys by divers.
Perhaps you could be the front end for their data bases....which are not the easiest things to get at and have basically no GUI.

Hi

Thanks for the feedback and input. Actually, it was through browsing reef.org, reefguide.org and whats that fish that I sort of decided to work on this site myself. Whereas one part of it was definitely to make the browsing experience better but there is other functionality that I wish to throw in that would also require a substantially different database at one point. Sadly that requires a bit more reinventing the wheel in the back end.

As always, any pictures people are willing to share would be awesome. Thanks

 

[KeithG]

to echo tursiops, there are already some very complete databases. I believe the challenge is getting sufficient content coverage to be useful.

Obtaining great shots of 25% of the common fish is real easy. Okay shots of 50% of the common fish is a bit of a challenge. Bad shots of 75% is difficult. Any shots of the rest is almost impossible - without a huge investment in time and money.


As a sanity check, I suggest you test my theory by holding a poll of how many people have a useful picture of a Pipehorse? Or a Leech Headshield Slug? Music Volute? ,...

 

[lmorin]

 

[deco_martini]

Fun fact: Ned Deloach spends a few weeks in Bonaire every year. (aka, the reef guide guy)

What you are proposing is a metaview.

If I were you, I would just create and index of what is seen in those locations and then link those to google image search results. Innaccurate but the user can scan the image search results and figure out which ones are actually a Blenny and not Benny Hill.

 

[Arsalan Ahmed]

Fun fact: Ned Deloach spends a few weeks in Bonaire every year. (aka, the reef guide guy)What you are proposing is a metaview. If I were you, I would just create and index of what is seen in those locations and then link those to google image search results. Innaccurate but the user can scan the image search results and figure out which ones are actually a Blenny and not Benny Hill.

I read that entire thing in Dr. House's voice.

 

[Arsalan Ahmed]

Hi guys

I appreciate all the PMs and offers for pictures.

I've been able to set up the rudimentary website that offers information on up to 4 countries/regions so far. I will be sourcing more images soon.

Some stuff that will get improved on shortly:
- Incremental changes to the UI
- Ability to separate out in the top section, specialty fish. Specialty fish are fish that people during a dive almost always point out for others to look. Examples such as sharks or Juvenile Spotted Drums should come to mind.
- Country Index
- Additional Caribbean Countries
- More pictures.

If anyone feels like volunteering as far as helping me add fish to a country or pointing out mistakes (database form is set up), please PM me and let me know. Again, I appreciate all the help I've been provided with so far.