Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Mind-googling technology

My friend Marc is an Orangutan specialist here in Sabah; he loved this crab when we came across a similar one whilst diving together (Achaeus japonicus commonly known as an Orangutan crab) from the Family MAJIDAE. I took this photo on Bubble coral between Sulug and Manukan islands on 23rd June 2007.

I'm beginning the task of modifying my fish identification on-line, to include an example of every photographed sighting I have logged in the park. It allows me to locate each photo too (if you have Google Earth then a simple button allows you to see the photos dotted around the park to show actual distributions). It also makes it easier for others to double-check and question my identifications (go right ahead) and hopefully will provide a more meaningful legacy for future researchers into the fishes in TARP. Not wanting to pay Google anything, I am limited to 250 'albums' per log-in ID (I have over 370 species with 400+ colour morphs) so I am starting with an ID for 'Sinkers' - fish which tend to sink if not swimming, as opposed to 'Swimmers' (I didn't have the heart to call them 'Floaters') who find it hard to sink except when asleep at night. I've already uploaded material for 9 species, for example Gymnothorax javanicus; go ahead and hit the 'View in Google Earth' button in the bottom right of the screen to see the distribution of my sightings, with the details on any one if clicked. It will also provide a gallery to locate other peoples sightings if they send them to me with or for identification and permission for me to add them.

I'm making changes to the checklist off-line to provide the relevant links too, but this is incremental and I'll only upload it when I next upload substantive changes to it.

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