[Coral-List] The Smithsonian Guide to the Shore Fishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific
jposada at usb.ve
jposada at usb.ve
Wed Feb 15 08:50:34 EST 2012
Tutorial about the Smithsonian guide to the shore fishes of the
tropical eastern Pacific: Free on iTunes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiI7NV9lRs0&feature=youtu.be
The Smithsonian Guide to the Shore Fishes of the Tropical
Eastern Pacific
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has released the first
completely portable bilingual species identification guide for the
shore fishes of the tropical Eastern Pacific as a free iPhone
application. Unique fish-finding, list-making tools and range maps
make the app a powerful tool for scientists, divers and tour guides
and a model for future phone-based field guides.
The tropical Eastern Pacific, spanning the area from Baja California
to Ecuador, and including the Galapagos, is one of three great global
centers of marine biodiversity. Until the 1990s there was no guide to
the fish in this region. The iPhone app evolved from Fishes of the
Tropical Eastern Pacific, a written guide published in 1994 by Gerald
R. Allen, consultant for Conservation International, and D. Ross
Robertson, Smithsonian staff scientist.
The book presented detailed descriptions of nearly 700 species and led
to the first Spanish-language guide in 1998. With funds from the
Smithsonian Womens Committee, Robertson created the Smithsonians
first bilingual interactive field guide application, released as a
compact disc in 2002 and on the Internet in 2008.
Now, not only can you carry the means to identify almost 1,300
species in your pocket, this application surpasses many of the
currently available field guides in its ability to create and share
lists that correspond to specific regions or field trips, said
Robertson. We also made it portable: The information is all in your
phone so you dont need to be connected to a server to use
it...important when you are out at sea.
Users can browse alphabetic lists by species and family, use
identification keys and perform a combination search on name,
location, shape, pattern and color characteristics to identify unknown
fishes. The notebook module serves two functions: users can keep track
of the species that they have recently seen and keep annotated lists
of fish from different sites that are then organized in folders; they
can also export lists by email.
Each species page includes common and scientific names, images of the
species, a detailed description, key features used to distinguish it
from other species and a map of its range in the tropical Eastern
Pacific. The information is also stored in the apps database and can
be used to search for a fish. A glossary of scientific terms makes the
guide accessible to students and lay-people, and information about the
extinction risk status (International Union for Conservation of Nature
Red List) is available to resource managers and conservationists.
Find the guide by searching in the iTunes store for fishes east
pacific or by following this link directly to the iTunes store.
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama
City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute
furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to
human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and
promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and
importance of tropical ecosystems.
Website: www.stri.si.edu.
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/fishes-east-pacific.-an-identification/id494644648?mt=8
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