Fishermen join hands with INCOIS to improve fishing forecasts
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A new mobile application developed by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) — Android-based app — Fisheries Information Source Hub (FISH), allows fishermen to upload geotagged photographs of their catches directly from the sea, which could transform the way fishing advisories are delivered in the country.
Scientists hope the data will help develop more accurate, species-specific fishing forecasts, enabling fishermen community to find target species more efficiently while supporting sustainable fisheries management.
India’s marine fisheries sector supports the livelihoods of nearly 3.8 million coastal residents. However, the sector faces growing challenges, including over-exploitation of coastal resources, declining catch rates in nearshore waters and significant income disparities between mechanised and small-scale fishers.
INCOIS presently issues daily Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisories based on satellite observations of sea surface temperature and chlorophyll concentrations to help reduce search time and improve catch efficiency. But, developing forecasts for specific species requires large volumes of georeferenced catch data, which are not available through conventional fisheries monitoring systems.
To bridge this gap, INCOIS adopted a citizen-science approach making the fishing communities become active partners in scientific research. The FISH app enables fishers to take photographs of their catches, which are automatically tagged with location data. The information is transmitted to INCOIS servers, where it undergoes quality checks before being analysed by scientists and fish taxonomy experts.
“The results have been promising,” says Director T.M. Balakrishnan Nair. During its pilot phase in 2023-24, more than 1,000 fishermen installed the application, while 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.
Available in 10 Indian languages, including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia and Bengali, the app has been designed to function even without internet connectivity. The fishermen can capture images at sea and upload them later when network access becomes available, said the director.
Scientists say the collected data could help create habitat suitability models and future species-specific advisories for commercially important fish, much like the Tuna advisory service already being 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 did a research on the app, noted that citizen-generated data can complement satellite observations and help 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.
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