Technology
FISH App Lets Fishermen Share Geo‑Tagged Catch Photos to Boost Species‑Specific Forecasts
By V. Geetanath
A new Android mobile application called Fisheries Information Source Hub (FISH) has been launched by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS). The app allows fishermen to take and upload geotagged photographs of their catches directly from the sea. The data will be used by scientists to develop more accurate, species‑specific fishing forecasts, helping fishers locate target species more efficiently and supporting sustainable fisheries management.
India’s marine fisheries sector supports the livelihoods of nearly 3.8 million coastal residents, but it faces challenges such as over‑exploitation of coastal resources, declining catch rates in nearshore waters and income disparities between mechanised and small‑scale fishers. INCOIS currently issues daily Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisories based on satellite observations of sea surface temperature and chlorophyll concentrations to reduce search time and improve catch efficiency. However, species‑specific forecasts require large volumes of georeferenced catch data that are not available through conventional monitoring systems.
To address this gap, INCOIS has adopted a citizen‑science approach, making fishing communities active partners in research. The FISH app automatically tags photographs with location data and transmits them to INCOIS servers, where they undergo quality checks before analysis by scientists and fish taxonomy experts. Director T.M. Balakrishnan Nair said the results have been promising.
During its pilot phase in 2023‑24, more than 1,000 fishermen installed the application, and submissions of useful geo‑tagged catch photographs increased nearly 20‑fold. By the end of 2024, INCOIS had received more than 1,000 validated geo‑referenced images from several coastal states. The app is available in ten Indian languages, including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia and Bengali, and is designed to function even without internet connectivity. Fishermen can capture images at sea and upload them later when network access becomes available, the director added.
Scientists believe the collected data could help create habitat suitability models and future species‑specific advisories for commercially important fish, similar to the Tuna advisory service already operated by INCOIS. Institute scientists Dhanya M. Lal, T.N.C. Karthik, Sneha Jha, Chennuri Sathish, Susmita Raulo, R. Premkumar, Sanjiba Kumar Baliarsingh, Alakes Samanta and Sudheer Joseph, who conducted research on the app, noted that citizen‑generated data can complement satellite observations and fill crucial information gaps in fisheries research. Future versions of the app may also allow users to report quantitative catch data, jellyfish blooms, marine debris and fishery bycatch.