Non-invasive assessment of reef fish species diversity
using underwater photography

A collaborative workshop

30 September – 4 October 2022

at CoralEye, Bangka Island, North Sulawesi

Prof. Dr. Nico Michiels, MSc. Leonie John
University of Tuebingen, Germany

and

Prof. Dr. Markus Lasut

Sam Ratulangi University (UNSRAT), Manado, Indonesia

Fish species numbers reach their highest densities in the coral triangle. Studying how this diversity changes in response to human activity is a challenge as it is far from trivial to recognise and identify so many species in situ. In order to make field surveys reasonably complete, it is a fundamental requirement that the person doing such a survey, can visually recognise and document those species in the field. This implies that the observing person has the ability to recognise species without the help of a book, and is capable of quickly taking good-quality pictures that can be used for confirmation afterwards.

Here, we learn the following basic approaches in fish identification:

• (1) Digital training of fish families, genera and species using an existing picture database, including an awareness of colour variation in relation to age, sex or condition.
• (2) Optimised photography with compact cameras to provide proof of presence.
• (3) Strategies to standardise data collection and storage.

Provisional programme

Pre-workshop preparation: All students have studied lecture slides about the most important fish families and the slides about flash-free underwater photography with the Olympus tough tg6 compact camera. During the workshop, all participants will have a chance to work with an Olympus tough tg6.