Fishing in the past

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can I change the language?

2.   How can I select more than one species?
   

3. How can I select fish species based on their characteristics?
4. What if I am not totally sure about an identification?
5. What should I do when there is a species name written in the picture?
6. Why are there pictures with non-existing fish?
7. What should I do if there are animals of different species present in the photo?
8. What should I do when there are two animals of the same species?
9. What if I see an animal that is not on your list?
10. What if I am in doubt between two species or I only know the family name?
11. What if I see a fish which is both cut and on a market?
12. What do I do when there are multiple images of one piece of art?
13. What is the difference between a subterminal, terminal or superior mouth?
14. If I make a mistake, can I return to the photo to correct it?
15. Can I see how many pictures I have classified?
16. What if I see something in a photo that I want to tell the scientists about?
17. What will this information be used for?
18. How can I discuss a photo with others?
19. Can I share the pictures from this project outside zooniverse?
20. How can I ask a question that’s not in this FAQ?

1. How can I change the language?
First, you should go to the upper right corner of the screen. You will find a choice list there, where you can choose between English or Dutch.

If you are in the fish identification task, and after setting the language in the upper right, there are still words in Dutch, you should go to the home page of the project and click on "ENGLISH!" (see how to do this in the video below.
Select English mode

2. How can I select more than one species?
In the video you can see how you can identify multiple species from the list (Two in this video) and optionally identify fish where you only know the family name. Hit "identify" to choose a species. Do not hit "next" untill you have identified all the species in the painting that can be attributed to a species from the list.

3. How can I select fish species based on their characteristics?
You can click on the characteristic of the fish that is most obvious in the picture e.g. caudal fin shape, and choose the corresponding shape. If you can see the body shape of the fish, it is best to start with "looks like". Watch this video in order to see how to select species based on their characteristics.

4. What if I am not totally sure about an identification?
At first, a guess can convey a lot of information, especially when analyzed in combination with the guesses made by others who classified the same image. Each picture on "fishing in the past" is shown to multiple people. If those people don’t agree, the picture is shown to even more people. Showing the photo to enough people usually gives us enough information to come to a right answer. If there is broad disagreement on the species identification, we are able to see the top two labels in our post-classification data analysis. Even if many people guess different species, we may still get information about the animal. For example, consider an image that contained one blurry, vague animal. People might identify that image as a brill, dab, flounder, halibut, megrim sole. Even though the classifications are all different, all of the classifications are flatfish. Therefore, we can conclude that the animal is likely a member of the Pleuronectiformes.

5. What should I do when there is a species name written in the picture?
Ignore these names. Identify the species based on the appearance of the fish not on the text. Apart from the mistakes artists could have made, the names they used in the past are not the same as we use now and the old names sometimes resemble current names of different species.

6. Why are there pictures with non-existing species?
The pictures were selected on having identifyable fish by volunteers. We are filtering these out with the "fish or no fish" task. Accidentally, there may be some irrelevant works including vague paintings or non-existing species such as mermaids and sea monsters in the identification tasks. You do not have to identify fantasy creatures. If you cannot identify any fish, do not select a species in the identification task and in the next step indicate that you have identified all the fish in the painting for as far as possible.

7. What do I do if there are animals of different species present in the picture?

First, identify one of the animals and respond to the questions about it. After you have clicked the “Identify” button, you will be taken back to the classification screen and you can identify additional species.

8. What should I do when there are two animals of the same species?
First select the species. In the first identification step you do not have to select the species twice. In the step where you mark species that were not on the list, you should mark every fish that you havn't already identified in the first step.

9. What if I see an animal that is not on your list?

First complete the identifications of all the species that are on the list. If you think you see an animal that is not on the list, you should first double-check the list. The animals are on alphabetical order, but sometimes it may be difficult to localize them. For example Thornback ray is found under the name Ray-thornback. This is done to make it easier to see all the rays together and to make it easier to find animals starting with "common" or "European".
After you have double checked the list, and you are sure it is not there, you can click next and indicate the species in a next step.

10. What if I am in doubt between two species or I only know the family name?
First complete the identifications of all the species that are on the list. In the next steps you will be able to click on the other fish and give a genus or family name.

11. What if I see a fish which is both cut and on a market?

You can select multiple options.

12. What do I do when there are multiple images of one piece of art?

If there is an overview image with some additional detail images, you focus on the overview image and use the detail images only in order to better determine the species. If there are different images with the same view of the artwork, but with differences in quality, you focus on the image which has the best quality.

13. What is the difference between a subterminal, terminal or superior mouth?
If you look at the head of the fish from the side, you will have to look at the position were the front of the mouth opening ends relative to the extreme point of the nose.
If the mouth ends above the nose point, it is a superior mouth.

If the mouth ends below the nose point, it is a subterminal mouth.

If the mouth opens at the point of the nose it is a terminal mouth.

14. If I make a mistake, can I return to the photo to correct it?

After you have hit the "Done" button, you cannot go back, but do not worry about it! Your best guesses contribute to a collection of responses that lead us to the right answer. Since every photo is seen by multiple volunteers, any mistakes or misidentifications will eventually be outweighed by a larger number of correct answers. If you have just hit the "Done" button and realize a mistake, you can always explain it using the talk option.
As long as you don't click on the "Done" button, you can go back to the previous step by clicking on the "back" button and adjust you answers.

15. Can I see how many pictures I have classified?

Yes, you can!

1. Log in to your Zooniverse account.
2. Click on your user name in the upper right hand corner and select Profile.
3. Select the tab “Your Stats”. This will show you all of the classifications that you have done for "Fishing in the past" and any other Zooniverse projects that you have helped.

16. What if I see something in a photo that I want to tell the scientists about?

If you see something in an image which is relevant for the research (e.g. information on commercial use or species determination), which cannot be entered within the usual questions, you can share those photos on the discussion boards. To do so, click on the “Talk” button and add a comment to the photo. If relevant, add a hashtag that will make it easier to search by keyword, such as #consumption or #which-species-is-this. We can use the information that you provide for our research.

17. How will this information be used?

Visit the About tab under each project to learn more about the goals of our project and how we plan to collaboratively use information collected from all of our activities.

18. How can I discuss a photo with others?

When you have finished classifying the image and clicked the “Done” button, you will be directed to a page with a summary of your classification along with “Done” and "Done and Talk" buttons. If you click on the “Done and Talk” button, you will be brought to the discussion boards for the project you're working on. Here you can add hashtags to the photo, add the photo to your collection, like the photo, or ask a question about it.

19. Can I share the pictures from this project outside zooniverse?
Pictures within the species descriptions that are marked with a © symbol are used under a Creative Commons Attribution license. The copyright holder is mentioned below the picture. Visit the following webpages for the corresponding license terms:
CC BY SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
CC By SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
CC BY NC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

The pictures of the paintings from the rijksmuseum and RKD are copyright of the rijksmuseum and RKD, as copyright owners of photographic material and, where applicable, of the image itself.

20. How can I ask a question that’s not in this FAQ?

Start by clicking “Talk” at the top of the page. Here you can find questions asked by other citizen scientists. If you don’t find the answer you are looking for, click on the relevant forum under “Help”. At the bottom of the page, you can create a new discussion. Our moderators check the forums regularly and answer as many questions as we can. Experienced Zooniverse volunteers also participate in these discussions and offer great advice.