Found from the highest alpine lakes to the darkest depths of the ocean, under frigid Antarctic ice sheets and in steaming thermal pools; if there is water, you are likely to find a thriving community of fish. In fact, this great diversity of habitats is one of the primary factors that makes fishes the most diverse group of vertebrate species on the planet.

With over 33,000 species scientifically described, and more being discovered each year, keeping all these fishes straight can be a challenge. Yet, as anglers, knowing which species we are catching is critical to ensure the conservation of productive recreational fisheries for yourself and for future generations. Perhaps this sounds like an overstatement, and in some situations it may be. However, for many of our most popular fisheries proper species ID by anglers is truly essential. That is why your favorite FREE fishing application is announcing Fishial species recognition, new with our latest app update.

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Fisheries Management

Fisheries managers set quotas, bag limits, and length requirements with the goal of optimizing the long-term productivity of a fishery. Only by properly identifying the species we catch can we determine if we can harvest that fish without contributing to a potential decline in the quality of our fishery.

Coming full circle, a significant amount of the data used by fisheries managers to evaluate the health of a fishery and set these limits comes directly from recreational anglers. Only by receiving accurate reports of species caught, harvested, and released can managers properly design regulations for a fishery. This last point is particularly important as we observe a warming of our oceans and associated poleward range shifts of many species.

Lastly, having a keen eye for fishes allows us to identify species that are out of place and may become invasive, wreaking havoc on the fisheries we hold dear.

Fish Species Identification

At FishAngler we encourage people to get out and explore new waters with new fishes. To ensure that our users can identify any new species they may catch, we are excited to introduce a new suite of features to assist with fish ID built in partnership with Fishial.ai available on the latest version of the FishAngler app.

These tools will allow users to hone their knowledge of fish species by performing trait-based filtration, comparing and contrasting species details, and by using the Fishial.ai detection algorithm to analyze your own fish photos. When used together, this suite of tools will give anglers the skills to know what makes each species unique, as well as which features are conserved across habitats (such as body shape and fin position), and which may vary (such as color and pattern).

We hope that our users will find these tools intuitive and easy to use. This is just part of our latest attempt to make FishAngler the most useful fishing app on the market!

 

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