Along with two other UNSW researchers (Associate Professor and a PhD), I recently met up with Valerie Taylor, the famous shark conservationist and cinematographer. Among other ideas, I ‘pitched’ iNat to her and discussed accessing her old footage and uploading it to iNat. We’re still putting the finishing touches on the discussion and finalising some details, but she’s quite receptive to the idea. So over the next few months, I’ll be uploading her photographs and stills from her footage to iNat via an account set up in her name. Many of these images are from 50+ years ago and represent never before seen underwater footage. I’ll be uploading underwater images taken from her from around the world. I know everyone here understands the value of this data, but to briefly explain one application:
In the next few weeks I’ll be going through footage she took from the Great Barrier Reef’s Heron Island and creating a project for all the fish she observed. Then in late January/early February I’ll be heading up to Heron myself and seeing how fish biodiversity has changed since, e.g. which species are no longer there.