Image collection in the Coral Reef Network WEB System: A snapshot of the fauna and flora around the coral reefs of the Ryukyu Islands from 2002 to 2013

The Global Oceanographic Data Center (GODAC) collected pictures of marine organisms around the coral reefs in the Ryukyu Islands from citizen divers during 2002 to 2013. GODAC also collected videos through GODAC’s research activities using a small remotely-operated vehicle “Niraikanai 150”. These image collection of the pictures and videos had been published on the website of Coral Reef Network WEB System (http://www.godac.jp/coral/). The image collection can become a valuable snapshot to know a past fauna or flora in the Ryukyu Island. We generated biological occurrence records from the image collection and their metadata including locality information and vernacular name of the organisms. Latitude and longitude in a biological occurrence record was determined using locality information from the image metadata and gazetteers (Marine Regions and Google Maps). When detailed location information was available, geometries were generated in Well-known text format. Scientific names of the organisms were determined by referring with the vernacular name (Japanese name) in the metadata of the image and BISMaL (http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/bismal/). If specific literature was used for identification, its bibliographic title was added to each record.