Digitizing the deep sea

Nearly 25,000 species of fish live on our planet, and a University of Washington, Seattle, professor wants to scan and digitize them all. That means each species will soon have a high-resolution, 3D visual replica online, available to all and downloadable for free.

“These scans are transforming the way we think about 3D data and accessibility,” says UW Professor Adam Summers. Summers uses a small computerized tomography (CT) scanner in the back room of a lab to churn out dozens of fish scans from specimens gathered around the world. The machine works like a standard CT scanner used in hospitals: A series of x-ray images is taken from different angles, then combined using computer processing to create three-dimensional images of the skeleton.

The goal is to make it possible for scientists to examine the morphology of a particular species, or try to understand why a group of fish all have similar physical characteristics such as bony head “armor” or the ability to burrow into the sand. “It’s been so fun to throw this data up on the web and have people actually use it,” Summers says.

Students, postdoctoral researchers, and professors from around the world have come to the labs on San Juan Island to scan their favorite specimens. They also send boxes of fish specimens in the mail for Summers’ lab to scan and post online. Fish from museum collections are trackable with numbers, and the online database now houses scans of fish from the UW’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, the National Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, Ohio State University, Western Australian Museum, and many others.