Have you seen this fish?

When you SCUBA dive in Florida, you can become a citizen scientist.

Think taking selfies of Goliath Groupers.The Goliaths don’t have opposable thumbs like primates (monkeys, apes, us), so holding a camera underwater (or a cell phone) will be impossible for the groupers. But you can do the selfie for them. And in doing so, you can make a great contribution to my research on Goliath Grouper behavior, and to the advancement of science in general.

There are unique marks on the animal’s face (facial markings) that make individual identification possible. And when you can tell one Goliath Grouper from another, that’s when you can start doing some serious science in animal behavior and conservation.

The master plan is to photo-selfie all Goliath Groupers in Florida. It will take many divers, and many dives. Every single selfie you take will help the research. Even if you suspect you are selfy-ing the same Goliath over and over.

Here’s what to do.

You can take a frontal selfie like this (the grouper is looking straight ahead at you)

Goliath Grouper frontal selfie. Copyright: Sarah Frias-Torres

or a profile selfie like this (the grouper head is looking to one side). If you can only photograph one side, take the LEFT side (fish looking left). If you can photograph both sides of the same fish, that’s even better!

Goliath Grouper profile selfie. Copyright: Mark Eakin

As soon as you can,  write down:

WHEN (date) & WHERE (dive site)

Send me PHOTO, WHEN & WHERE to GrouperDoc@gmail.com

I’ll be posting information on this blog as selfies start to arrive.

Let’s go diving!