A screen grab from recreational fishing app Fish4All.
Two recreational fishermen have invested more than $100,000 developing a free smartphone app designed to log catches.
Tony Craig and John Murphy last month launched Fish4All, an app which allows recreational fishermen to record where, when and how many fish they catch, creating a greater insight into New Zealand's fish stocks
Craig said the information is stored in a database that would be controlled by an organisation representing the recreational fishing sector.
"The Fish4All team is working with the sector to determine the best organisation to control and maintain the database over the long-term," Craig said.
Last week the head of the largest Maori-owned fishing company Aotearoa Fisheries (AFL), Carl Carrington said an app for recreational fishermen to record their daily catch would allow better management of seafood stocks.
Craig was once employed by AFL and has worked as an associate for Sealord.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) fisheries management director Dave Turner said MPI was aware of the app and collecting additional information is "definitely helpful in increasing the collective knowledge of all recreational fishing activity".
"Ideas like this app have real potential, but before focusing on one approach we need to think carefully about what sort of information this type of tool can gather and how best to make use of it," Turner said.
MPI is looking at types of information recreational fishers could voluntarily provide to help fisheries management, Turner said.
But recreational fishing advocacy group LegaSea and a fisheries scientist last week said voluntary reporting of recreational fishing catch was of no value.
New Zealand Sport Fishing Council advisor and fisheries scientist John Holdsworth said he had downloaded Fish4All and it was a good first attempt.
But information gathered through a voluntary reporting app was not scientific, he said.
"It's hard to get absolute harvest estimates for an app like that because there's no way of scaling it," Holdsworth said.
Scientists would prefer to design their own surveys to assess fish stocks, he said.
Craig said there are an estimated 1 million recreational fishermen in New Zealand and by the end of the summer he hoped up to 10 per cent of fishermen were using the app.
Fish4All can be downloaded on iPhones and will be available on Android on December 15, Craig said.
MPI has historically used phone, boat ramp and aerial surveys to estimate recreational catch, which only provides a snapshot of fisheries, Craig said.
He hopes the app will attract advertisers to generate revenue to pay the app's developers and the organisation which maintains the database.
Fish4All applied to both saltwater and freshwater fishing and would provide information on catches, fishing methods, and time spent fishing by region.
It also records age, sex and ethnicity of users while serving as a personal fishing diary, allowing fishermen to compare their catch with others and take photos.
Craig said over time the app could be available in different languages, have a function to anonymously report poachers and allow fishing clubs to receive reports on members' fishing activity.
Responsible recreational fishing awareness group Our Fishing Future endorsed the app.
President Geoff Rowling said Fish4All allowed responsible fishermen to help preserve fish stocks for future generations.
"If we are to join in the collaborative management and stewardship of our marine resources better information will always be helpful," Rowling said.
The app would not be perfect, but over time technology and information gathering methods would improve, he said.
"We know the fisheries science sector, who develop many of the fisheries management decisions, are crying out for better information from the fishing public."
- Stuff
