FishRook
A research team at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) would like to have a clear, close-up photo of every fish you catch. Even the little ones. Even the oyster toads. The team members are building a library of images that can “train” software for a cell phone app called RecFish that identifies fish species. The app will give anglers a versatile field guide that recognizes a catch’s species, measures its length, estimate its weight, register the location, notes the date, and cross-references with current state regulations to determine if the fish is legal to harvest. It could also provide information on the species, an especially useful feature if the catch is unusual, while it builds a permanent log for the angler.
When the angler uploads a photo to RecFish, it will also contribute to fisheries science, because anglers as a group handle many more fish than scientists do, over many more days and often from locations where the researchers can’t deploy tools…
