I think if you post an identifiable photo of the fish, move the date and location to reflect the date and location where you caught it, it should still count as wild even if you add a couple of photos of fish and chips to the observation.
If I saw an observation like that, I’d probably ask the observer if the map shows the date and location where they caught it or where they uploaded the observation, but I wouldn’t automatically mark as “not wild”.
Most fish observations I see are photos taken at the place and time the fish were caught, so they’re fine marked as wild – they were free a moment ago. I think it is also legitimate to mark more processed food as wild is at the location where they were captured earlier in the day – https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28359931
This isn’t actually true. It should be marked captive unless you observed the organism at the point of capture. For example, if I see someone catching a fish(or I catch my own fish) the organism is wild. However if I go to a fish market and see fish being dumped into a tank unless I saw the organism at the point of capture, it is still captive.
That sounds like an educator who needs to be educated on what iNaturalist is (and is not) for.
I agree with you for fish in the market. They’re rarely at the time and place where captured. I mostly see photos of fish that somebody just caught, photos at the lake or stream. Those should be called wild.
I probably have some interesting organisms growing unseen in forgotten containers in my refrigerator. Those of course are captive/cultivated. But I wouldn’t think of posting them on iNat.
There are interesting fish and plants in many markets, especially Asian markets. But again, why would these be worth submitting?
Yes, those are wild unless they were caught at an aquarium or something similar.
Mold on anything in a refrigerator is wild because you did not intend for it to be there(i.e. you deliberately did not put mold on it.)
As a few already mentioned here, let’s bear in mind that these observations seem to be related to college coursework, and a lot will depend on what their instructors have asked them to do. Some profs will have done a better job of setting their projects up than others.
I have a thought on the project admins who appear to have no iNat experience–they may have set up accounts just for their teaching roles. I just came across another college project (not bacteria) and the project’s About page is thoughtful, providing good guidelines and expectations, which makes it feel to me like the admin is quite familiar with iNat–and yet the admin has no obs, no IDs. I think it’s reasonable to assume that they are keeping work and personal accounts separate.
So, for me, it helps to realize that we have a new crop of users who are using the platform as part of their studies. For myself and my completely casual use of iNat, I found it took quite a while to really figure out all the aspects of using the site–beyond hoping for instant, AI identifications. For students, they don’t have a whole lot of time to settle in and figure things out, so I hope my interactions with their work will be welcoming.
I came across one student who was showing their full student ID card with each photo, while most are including either initials or name on a sticky note/scrap of paper. I sent a message to the one with the ID card recommending covering up the student ID number.
Even this is no easy topic, if you ever visited e.g. Paris fishmarkets.
You can get almost everything from around the globe.
You may ID it, but time and location do not relate to the living animal at all.
It might be of interest if you find a new species or find endangered species or just want to make a historic market survey in hundred years from now.
But there is much more relation to human habits in it than relation to nature.
It is only little more relevant as tropical fruit in a supermarket. Petfish imports review would make more sense.
Blue cheese. Nothing I could possibly say to add to this.
Well, yes! But since I detest blue cheese, the molds in my ‘fridge are unwelcome intruders.
I’ve seen some users say that photos of captive organisms can be quite useful, especially if the organism is difficult to find or photograph successfully in the wild. Captivity often provides a better opportunity to get a clearer, closer photo. I’m guessing the same would apply to photos from a fish market (unless you’re talking about salmon fillets or tuna steaks, which bear less resemblance to the whole, live organism)
I’d kill for a big slab of blue cheese, the rottener, the better.
Sometimes photos from a fish market are all we have. This is the only iNat record of Goniofusus spectrum:
It came from the fish market on the beach at Puerto López. Of course it didn’t actually live on that beach. It is an offshore species. But the small-scale fishermen don’t range very far from their port, so it was captured somewhere near Puerto López.
Just take it!
Yeah, I was too broad in my rejection of fish markets and similar venues where fish and produce are sold. I think if the product being sold most likely came from a nearby area, it’s a good record and could even be Research Grade. If it could have come from thousands of miles away, maybe not so good. But I do agree if the photo represents something poorly documented it should probably be submitted to iNat. I recall that some turtles in SE Asia only became known to herpetologists from individuals being sold in wet markets and the evidence indicated they were collected somewhere in the general vicinity. I’m still skeptical about anything that’s been processed and could have come from a great distance.
Good points. Similar situation with some crayfish species.. only being identified in the pet trade markets to then be traced back to their original collection sites.
The most famous find on a fish-market was of course Latimeria. Well, she got it directly from the trawler-captain, before he brought his finds to the market (or disposed of them). Here is the story.
@murl10 suggested I post the copypasta response I’ve been using here (thanks for reminding me!)
Hi, welcome to iNaturalist!
iNaturalist is intended for observations of wild plants, animals, and other organisms. Photos of processed / packaged food items aren’t really suitable content (a microscope image that actually shows the organism in question would be better, though even that should be marked as “captive / cultivated”)
If you are being asked to do this for a class, please ask your instructor to familiarize themselves with the best practices for using iNaturalist in the classroom: https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000170805-inaturalist-teacher-s-guide
If they have other questions about using iNaturalist, they can ask them here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/c/educators/30
If you need some more help, be sure to check out the Getting Started page: http://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started and Frequently Asked Questions: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help