1. What if I can't tell which species it is?

It will be a learning curve at first, but you'll become skilled in species ID quicker than you think! And if it is extremely hard to tell whether a fish is a snapper or a sweep because of poor visibility, don't panic. Just make your best guess, because guesses that narrow down the list of possible species are still extremely helpful. We show each video clip to multiple volunteers, so there will be several correct classifications to outweigh any mistakes. If it's a really tricky ID, then everyone's guesses provide valuable information as to what kind of species it might be.

If one person classifies a fish as a snapper, another classifies it as a silver sweep, and another classifies it as a trevally, then we know it must be one of those sneaky silvery fishes that all look similar. If the species ID still isn't clear after being shown to many volunteers, then we give it a low confidence score and a scientist will look at that clip, with the information from your guesses available to help them out.

If there was an 'I don't know' button, then anytime someone is unsure about a species, they would use it, and we would miss out on a lot of useful information.

2. What do I do when there are individuals of different species in the clip?

Make separate classifications for the MAXcounts of each species. So pick one species seen in the clip, identify the timestamp where there are the most individuals of that species, and count those individuals. Then click "Identify", which records your classification and takes you back to the species list. There you can pick another species seen in the clip and repeat the process. When you have identified every species in the clip, click "Done".

3. What if it's hard to count the maximum number of individuals of each species?

Pause and play back the video as much as you want, and give your best guess! We show each clip to multiple volunteers, so any mistakes will be outweighed by the correct classifications. If it's a difficult count (such as when there are many individuals of a certain species on screen, and they might be swimming among individuals of different species), then everyone's guesses will tell us that the true number is somewhere in that range, and we'll take a look at it.

4. Why are there no fish in some video clips?

The baited cameras are deployed for thirty minutes at a time, and there will be some deployments with far less fish - particularly in control sites outside the marine reserves. This means that some clips will unfortunately just be kelp, rock or sand. We really appreciate that seeing things is far more interesting than waiting for 10 seconds only to click "Nothing here", but even that piece of data is immensely valuable. "Nothing here" provides machine learning models with examples of when there are no fish onscreen, and the compilation of this data tells us which sites may have very low fish numbers.

5. Why do some species appear in more than one category choice?

You can narrow down your species identifications using the categories Shape, Spots, Stripes, Size and Tail. Some species appear in more than one category choice; for example, snapper appear in both "none" and "several" within the Spots category. Most snapper are indeed speckled with blue spots, but in dim light conditions, this can be difficult to see - and the spots of very large snapper sometimes fade naturally over time. Putting species like snapper in more than one category choice takes into account how they might appear in the video clip, as well as changes in appearance at different life stages.

Another example is the Tail category, which includes "fan" and "rectangular". Whether a fish's tail appears fan-shaped or rectangular often depends on whether it is splayed open or not, so we've put some fishes into both category choices. The category choices are very much targeted to how you might see these species, rather than their actual characteristics (click on the species name for those).

6. What if I see a species that isn't on the list?

Exciting! Select Other, in that case. However, do have a good read through the species descriptions on the list first, to make sure it isn't a species which is actually there. If you think you know which species it is, or you're curious and want to find out, after you've made your classification you can click "Talk" and write a comment. Use the hashtag #other to make it easy for researchers and other volunteers to find your critter, and we will add the species which appear the most in the Other classification to the official list.

7. How do I tell the researchers about something I've seen?

If you see something particularly interesting or exciting, after you've classified it you can use the "Talk" button to comment on the video clip, which shares it to the talkboards. If it's an individual displaying an interesting behaviour, tell us about it alongside a hashtag of the species in question (if the species name is two words, write them with a hyphen in between e.g. #blue-cod or #scarlet-wrasse). If you're extremely lucky and see a marine mammal or seabird diving down to the BUV frame, let us know with #marine-mammal or #seabird.

8. What do the Māori words used mean, and how do you pronounce them?

Open the FIELD GUIDE tab for translations and pronunciations! The field guide is accessible almost anywhere within the project. Māori names for the different species are in "List of scientific and Māori names", and any words used elsewhere in the project are in "Glossary of Māori words".

9. Can I use any of the photos in this project?

Feel free to share screenshots and clips from the baited underwater videos to encourage others to join in, and provide a link to the project if you do so. However, the photos elsewhere in the project (including in the home page, species list, field guide and About section) are under the copyright of either the Department of Conservation or the awesome underwater photographers who have allowed us to use their photos for this project. Some are under a form of copyright that allows external non-commercial use with credit, so message @Hiromi_Beran or @mladds here on Zooniverse and we can give you more info or get you in touch with the right person.