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15 February 2021
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Kia ora and welcome to the first Marine Metre Squared newsletter of 2021!

Happy New Year/ngā mihi o te tau hou! We hope you are all enjoying your summer. We will be continuing our monthly newsletters to share ways that you can engage in the Marine Metre Squared project. These next few months we will be talking about tide pool photography and how to take useful images/videos to use for the Marine Metre Squared project.

We also want to promote Seaweek (March 6-14), which is a great time to get to know your local seashore better. Carry out a Marine Metre Squared survey and have a go photographing the marine animals and plants that you discover on a shore near you! Find out more on the Seaweek website and Seaweek Facebook page

Who am I?

There are over 17,000 marine species found around New Zealand and figuring out who is who is often quite difficult. The old saying, a picture is worth 1000 words, is likely true if the photograph is taken with the objective of identification in mind. What information will a scientist need to identify the animal or plant?

Identifying the animals and plants that you find on the seashore is a key part of the Marine Metre Square citizen science project. Learning more about diversity and distribution of seashore species is critical in understanding the ecology of the local environment and how it changes over time in response to environmental factors. Through community involvement in the Marine Metre Squared project, a database of where intertidal species are found around New Zealand is being created. Misidentifying species can lead to misleading data of where these marine animals may live. 

Tips for taking identification photos 

It does not matter what type of camera you have, there are some key ways to improve your photos for better identification. 

Size - Including something for the viewer to judge size is important. A ruler is ideal but you can include other items in your photo for comparison. If you do not have a ruler, your hand, coin or end of a pencil will work as well.

Clarity - It is never fun when you leave the shore and go back to look at your photos only to find them blurry. Make sure to take a few photos. If you are using your phone, tap the screen to focus on the animal you are taking a photo of. The photo below of a common shore crab, is in focus, the only animal within the photo, but is missing a scale to judge the size of the animal.


Single animal in photo - identifying animals is easier when the photo is focused only on one animal. 

  • Try to take the photograph of the animals in their natural habitat, as that provides clues about where they live which is helpful when identifying them. In some situations, it may be better to place the animals on a different background (e.g. hand) to photograph them.
  • Do not remove animals that are stuck (chitons, limpets, really strong snails!) 
  • Get close and focus your camera on the animal you are interested in. Point to the individual animal if you cannot have one animal in the photo which also acts as a judge for the size of the animal. 
Different Angles - Make sure to take a few photos with different angles of your animal, especially snails! Having a photo of the top, bottom, and side will help with more detailed identification. The two photos below are a good start, but for snails making sure you take photos of the spiral (spire) of the shell help in animal identification.

            

 

Describe the location - Last, but certainly not least, where did you take your photo? The marine species you will be looking at while doing a Marine Metre Squared program live in habitats, certain locations around the shore. Knowing the location of where you found a marine animal can help in the identification process.
  • Is the shoreline a sheltered bay or an exposed outer beach?
  • Was the substrate hard (rocky reef, boulders or cobble) or soft (sand or mud)?
  • Was the animal sheltering under rock, or sitting on the top of a rock?
  • What was the tidal level (low, mid or high tide) and distance from waters edge?

Light of the tide pools

Light is all important to get that perfect photoshoot. When photographing marine animals on the shores for Mm2, it is good to be aware of how light light levels and time of day may affect the quality of your photo.  What impact will sun or clouds have on the quality of your photos? Things to be aware of while photographing marine animals are:

  • Shadows within the photo

  • High or low light - too much or too little light can hinder in helping with identifications of marine animals

  • Avoid including the sky in your photo

    • The sky is beautiful but it will cause shadow and could alter the focus of your camera.

  • Glare off of water/surfaces can hinder the clarity of the photo

    • If there is water within the area of the marine animal, try to get different angles to see which has the least amount of glare

Workshops

There is a photo workshop on the 13th of March, watch this space and the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre for more information coming about this exciting opportunity!

Keep Up to Date with Us!

Don't forget to follow us on  FacebookTwitter and Instagram at @marinemetre2. On social media we post relevant articles and activities as well as share what our Mm2 community has been up to. So we want to hear from you! Whether it is finding something weird and wonderful or simply just a great day out exploring - get in touch with us so we can post it on social media or under 'Community Stories' on our website.

Up next…

Wanting details on how to upload your photos to iNaturalist and guides on taking photos on the shore, just wait for the next Mm2 Newsletter!
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