Why doesn’t eOceans require photos of the exact species or item being logged, like other citizen science platforms?

For many reasons, actually.

First, we don’t want to encourage people to get close enough to take a photo — especially not close enough for a computer program to be able to identify the species.

Second, animals like space and often keep their distance, so if we required photos of all species then we would be seriously limiting the number of observations gathered.

Third, the oceans are vast and most 'sightings’ are of zeros — zeros are just as important.

Fourth, people who work at sea — other than photographers — do not usually have a camera in their hands and are busy people. It cannot be expected that someone is going to be ready to capture an image of everything they see.

Fifth, capturing a photo of one thing — like a shark — does not provide any information about the factors influencing that shark. By capturing data from ‘check-ins’ (technically stationary point counts) and ‘auto-tracking’ sampling techniques (technically belt transects, distance sampling, or roving), and not just the presence of one animal, provides a more complete picture.

Sixth, instead of not trusting what people report by requiring a photograph, we use the data itself to validate and add error estimates. But, it really all depends on the question being asked.