There is a website called
inaturalist where individuals can upload observations they have made of any species on earth. To date there are over 236 million observations(mostly photos), 515,000 species documented, and over 8.6 million people signed up and making those observations.
I joined inaturalist on Oct 11, 2021. Since then I have made 1,792 observations of 1084 species. Most of my observations are underwater in southeast Florida. Some of the projects with my observations include but are not limited to,
The Blue Heron Bridge Project,
Sea slugs of Florida, and
Marine Fishes of the Caribbean. (Bluebell Tunicate Left)
Any member can make a "project". The projects are a method to organzie a set observations. It can be for a given place, a given time, a given taxonomic classification, a given set of individuals making observations, or some combination of the preceeding. A project particularly apropo to this thread would be the
Reefs Of South Florida&the Florida Keys (I have about 600 observations here). This project was started July 2, 2018 has 11383 observations, 974 species documented, 315 observers, 791 identifiers, and 142 members. This project does not require membership in order for observations to be added, some projects do require membership for observations to be added.
Here is a rough break down of species in the Reefs Of South Florida&the Florida Keys project;
| Ray Finned Fish | 360 |
| Elasmobranchs | 12 |
| Mollusks | 220 |
| Cnidarians | 92 |
| Crustaceans | 92 |
| Sponges | 57 |
| Echinoderms | 42 |
| Plants | 32 |
| Segmented Worms | 21 |
| Bryozoans | 5 |
| Turtles | 4 |
| Tunicates | 13 |
| Mammals | 2 |
| Flatworms | 3 |
| Horseshoe Worms | 1 |
| Kelp, and Diatoms | 2 |
Juvenile Short Bigeye Below
When I do a REEF survey of one hour duration on a reef in south east Florida, a low count would be 55 species, a high count would be >100 species. That is just for ray finned fish and elasmobranchs. If I did a survey of anything I could positively identify the species count would max out in the 160-180 species range. NOT because the species are limited, but because my ablitiy to look, recognzie, and record is limited. I would not be able to duplicate count in one hour on any terrestrial habitat on the earth.
Coral Reefs are considered to be the highest biodiversity ecosystems on the planet. The reefs in southeast Florida illustrate this magnificently.
Longjaw Squirrelfish right
Bluelip Hamlet Below
