Miyazaki, Y.; Murase, A.; Shiina, M.; Masui, R., and Senou, H., 2015. Integrating and utilizing citizen biodiversity data on the Web for science: An example of a rare triggerfish hybrid image provided by a sport fisherman.

We report a photograph of the rare triggerfish hybrid, Rhinecanthus aculeatus × R. rectangulus (order Tetraodontiformes; family Balistidae), from Miyako-jima Island, Ryukyu Islands, southern Japan, that was provided by a sport fisherman via WEB sakana-zukan (an online photographic database of fish in Japan). The image was registered in the Fish Image Database of the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History to make it available for scientific scrutiny. Here we emphasize the importance of communication between citizens, such as fishermen, scuba divers, and others, and experts via the Internet, to make possible the processing of biodiversity information provided by citizens into museum collections. This communication contributes Global Biodiversity Information Facility data for various biological studies, such as those on taxonomy, morphology, fauna/flora, community ecology, and biogeography.