Abstract
There remain parts of our planet that are seldom visited by humans, let alone scientists. In such locations, crowd-sourced or citizen scientist data can be critical in describing biodiversity and detecting change. Rangitāhua, the Kermadec Islands, are 750 km from the nearest human-habitation. Although our knowledge of this near pristine location has increased with recent biodiversity expeditions, we still lack comprehensive understanding of the marine biodiversity surrounding the islands. In 2015, professional underwater videographers were commissioned to produce a nature documentary focused on Rangitāhua’s reefs. We strategically surveyed the raw documentary video and examined how biodiversity estimates differed from traditional scientific surveys. We uncovered three new fish species records for Rangitāhua, extending the known distribution for each species, two of which are also new records for New Zealand waters. Comparison of documentary video footage with scientific survey methods showed that estimates of reef fish species richness from the documentary video were similar to stationary surveys, but lower than non-stationary surveys. Moreover, all survey methods, including documentary video, captured different fish assemblages, reflecting each method’s particular bias. Overall, we provide a proof-of-concept for how collaborations between scientists and professional natural historians, such as videographers and photographers, can provide valuable biodiversity information.
Highlights
There remain parts of our planet that are seldom visited by humans, let alone scientists
We present new species records and biodiversity knowledge for the shallow reef fish assemblage of Rangitāhua (Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve) obtained from raw documentary video taken by professional underwater videographers
In collaboration with Natural History New Zealand (NHNZ), we studied the raw documentary video to investigate whether such documentary film expeditions can deliver additional biodiversity records for reef fishes, and how the estimates of reef fish biodiversity from such footage may differ from previous, more traditional, scientific surveys
Summary
There remain parts of our planet that are seldom visited by humans, let alone scientists. We present new species records and biodiversity knowledge for the shallow reef fish assemblage of Rangitāhua (Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve) obtained from raw documentary video taken by professional underwater videographers.
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