The Marine Biodiversity Survey of Guam and the Marianas is a collaborative effort between the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Guam Marine Laboratory.
The purpose of this survey is to document the marine life of these islands. The first product of the survey was volume 35-36 of the journal Micronesica, published in July 2003. A total of 6172 species were listed in that volume, 5640 from marine habitats in the Marianas, the rest from non-marine habitats or from nearby island groups.
To order a copy of this issue, write to John Slapcinsky. This web site serves to 1) provide supplementary documentation for this publication, and 2) carry the survey forward through the addition of new, and updates of existing, records. For the first objective our primary goal is to make the photographic records cited for 1283 species in the volume available online.
We now have most of the cited photos posted for taxa other than opisthobranchs; opisthobranchs and a few remaining photos will be added soon. At present photos are arranged as one or more pages under a few taxonomic headings. The scientific name, location where photo was taken, and a catalog number or abbreviation for the photographer (see below) are presently given below each photo. We plan to improve this layout soon and add tabular databases to cover all records. When complete this will represent version 1 of the survey, and will also be made available on CD-ROM. We then plan to add substantial additional photographic coverage beyond that cited in the Micronesica volume, as well as new record and updates on existing records in future versions.
You can help: if you have photos from the Marianas of species not illustrated here, or know of / have records from the Marianas not mentioned in the Micronesica volume (stay tuned for online database), that you would be willing to contribute, please contact Gustav Paulay, editor. All contributors will be acknowledged and their data added to the survey database.
This survey would not have been possible without the willingness, hard work, and patience of all the authors involved in the Micronesica volume and Editor Chris Lobban. It is further the result of the dedicated efforts of numerous naturalists and divers on Guam and elsewhere, who have collected, photographed, and identified the marine species from the region over the years. The students, staff, and faculty of the University of Guam Marine Laboratory were at the center of much of this effort, aided by the international taxonomic community. We thank them all!