A HEALTHIER OCEAN STARTS WITH SHARING.
We recommend these websites to learn more about the species you see - how to identify correctly, where they live, behaviour, distribution and conservation status:
"The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species" for taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on the species you see.
"Fish Base" to search for photos and maps of almost any fish species. Excellent resource for verifying the identity of any shark or ray species.
"OBIS" - Ocean Biogeographic Information Systems - database repository, where users can identify biodiversity hotspots and large-scale ecological patterns, analyze dispersions of species over time and space, and plot species' locations with temperature, salinity, and depth.
Want your observations of other fish, debris, or birds to count as well? Get to know these other excellent, science-based citizen science projects.
REEF.org - with some training, you can report all the fishes you see to REEF.org. This is the dataset eOceans | eShark counts on for validation - it is a very valuable dataset.
eBird.org - know your birds? Report the birds you see to eBird at Cornell University.
Marine Debris Tracker - detailed information about the garbage you see and remove while exploring the marine environment.
Redmap.org.au - If you are in Australia and see anything out of its range, or anything uncommon, submit it to Redmap - the range extension project run by researchers at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania.
SciStarter - is the place to find, join, and contribute to science through recreational activities and citizen science research projects. They have a database of citizen science projects that enable discovery, organization, and greater participation in citizen science.