AIMS Coral ID resource on disc – for free.

Our friends over at fragd.it recently posted about the return of the AIMS coral database, well, sort of.

The AIMS (Australian Instituate of Marine Science) coral database was the most comprehensive online resource of it’s kind but has since been taken down. I for one used it as often as possible when trying to ID new corals, SPS specifically, and when news surfaced of it going offline, I was not happy, as were most other reef hobbyists who had come to use and love this online resource. Basically it was like having Veron’s Corals of World book series in digital format.

But now it looks as if everybody will have access to this amazing resource, AIMS have announced that their Coral database will be available on CD (free of charge) in 2010.

The disc will include:

• non-technical summaries of identifying characters
• information about colours, habitats and abundances
• 2,500 colour underwater photographshundreds of black and white images and artworks of skeletal detail800 distribution maps
• references to taxonomic detail and regional field guides

Here are some screenshots from the CD.

Click here for full details and a tour on the AIMS coral CD.