Hi all
I have received the following communication from Kade Mills at Parks Victoria. Hopefully the photographers out there will support this push to identify Weedy Sea Dragons in Port Phillip.
Ian
Port Phillip Bay Weedy Seadragon Surveys
Background
The dive community is concerned that weedy seadragons sightings at Portsea Pier and Port Phillip Bay have been declining over the past 10 years. Unfortunately, there is limited historical information on the abundance of weedy seadragons at this location or within Port Phillip Bay to ascertain if this is correct. Using images submitted by divers and pattern mapping software to map the unique patterns that occur on the sides of weedies we will 1) be able to identify and name individuals 2) estimate the population of weedies at Portsea Pier and potentially Port Phillip Bay for the first time and 3) monitor individual seadragons to learn about their movements and breeding success (number of males with eggs).
To achieve these goals we are encouraging Citizen scientists (divers armed with cameras) to collect images of weedy seadragons from anywhere in Port Phillip Bay between the months of October - December. Seadragons are poor (slow) swimmers and easy to photograph additionally they have high site fidelity (small home range). Once a population is found you should be able to locate them again on your subsequent dives. They are protected under Commonwealth Law (1999) so please no harming or handling of them at any time.
Additional support for the project is provided by the University of Technology Sydney and the Underwater Research Group of New South Wales.
How to have a great Weedy Seadragon photo shoot (and capture images that spot recognition technology can be used to identify individual Seadragons)
INWATER
1. For us to be able to identify an individual we need clear photos featuring at a minimum the Left Hand Side (i.e. head to the left of image) but, preferably both sides of the weedy (take multiple shots of each side to ensure there is a photo that can be used).
2. Photos need to be taken as perpendicular as possible
3. When you have finally captured the shots take a photo of your gauges so we have a record of the depth. It also helps you to identify photos of different weedies.
AT HOME
1. Place photos of each individual (including photo of gauge) in a separate folder. Label folder as follows location_weedy1 (e.g. Portsea_weedy1). You do not need to label the individual images.
2. Send them through to kade@vnpa.org.au using wetransfer.com/ if under 2GB or use your favourite Cloud storage to send them through (e.g. Google Drive, Box.com, OneDrive etc.)
3. Let me know of any names you would like your weedies to be called. Obviously we will only do this if it has not been photographed before.
4. We will be in touch with you shorty after images are submitted to give you the story behind each of the weedies you photographed.
How to have a great Weedy Seadragon photo shoot (and capture images that spot recognition technology can be used to identify individual Seadragons)
INWATER
1. For us to be able to identify an individual we need clear photos featuring at a minimum the Left Hand Side (i.e. head to the left of image) but, preferably both sides of the weedy (take multiple shots of each side to ensure there is a photo that can be used).
2. Photos need to be taken as perpendicular as possible
3. When you have finally captured the shots take a photo of your gauges so we have a record of the depth. It also helps you to identify photos of different weedies.
AT HOME
1. Place photos of each individual (including photo of gauge) in a separate folder. Label folder as follows location_weedy1 (e.g. Portsea_weedy1). You do not need to label the individual images.
2. Send them through to kade@vnpa.org.au using wetransfer.com/ if under 2GB or use your favourite Cloud storage to send them through (e.g. Google Drive, Box.com, OneDrive etc.)
3. Let me know of any names you would like your weedies to be called. Obviously we will only do this if it has not been photographed before.
4. We will be in touch with you shorty after images are submitted to give you the story behind each of the weedies you photographed. ...
