Scubashooters.net and the Wiki Science Competition team have started a cooperation a few months ago that will continue for the next edition. As explained on the last issue of their on-line magazine, WSC and Scubashooters.net share very similar purposes and philosophy i.e.: to gather scientific images and videos that volunteers, students and researchers produce during their daily job tasks or free time activities. Stunning underwater and marine biology images are collected and re-used for educational purpose, and specifically as a tool to increase public awareness and show the importance and fragility of marine ecosystems.
With a growing number of submissions every year, finding qualified jurors and uploaders is a key target for the WSC team. This means also creating new and more specific categories in addition to the current ones, including, for example, some focused on wildlife photography. We are thinking about this possibility and we therefore need experts who can judge the scientific accuracy and also ethical aspects of underwater images.
Many WSC2017 finalists in countries such as Italy and the Philippines already include very good files uploaded by underwater photographers. We also hope to present and discuss these results separately on specific platforms, such as a future issue of Scubashooters.net. As an example, see this upload by Anna Varona to the Philippines competition:
