Copyright Issues

Dear Undercurrent,

In the April 2024 issue, I ran across a photo of a newly identified wrasse species I was sure had been taken by a good friend, Jeff Haines, but no photo credit was given.

Many of my friends spend their retirement and vacation time traveling to remote places, taking underwater photos to contribute to marine science. They work with marine biologists throughout the Americas and contribute thousands of photos to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute websites, free resources used by fishianados and scientists.

Other than an occasional grant or discount, they fund this out of their own pockets, spending thousands of dollars. Their only thanks is a photo credit. Some websites, especially from the aquarium trade, publish the photos without giving them credit. Unfortunately, Undercurrent selected Jeff's image from one of those websites when posting the news about this newly discovered species, Halichoeres sanchezi.

I remember how excited everyone was about the discoveries at the Revillagigedos, but they couldn't share the news about this wrasse until DNA had been processed and papers had been written. When the scientific paper came out, and news stories appeared, the photographers were finally able to tell all their friends about their great find. I want these great volunteer photographers to get credit for their hard work.

For the full paper on this discovery, which also includes several other photographers who went on this adventure, go to Halichoeres sanchezi n. sp., a new wrasse from the Revillagigedo Archipelago of Mexico, tropical eastern Pacific Ocean (Teleostei: Labridae) [PeerJ].

Sincerely,
- Carol Cox, (Port St. Joe, FL)

Dear Carol,

We certainly agree with you and will do our best to give credit where credit is due when we aren't using stock photos. We did take the photo from an aquarium trade website - though we deplore saltwater aquariums - and after your letter, we used the www.tineye.com reverse image search and quickly located the image in the original article, where it was accredited to Jeff Haines. Thanks for calling us on this.

- Ben Davison