FishNET paves the way for sport angler citizen science

YERC would like to congratulate seniors DJ McCleish, Nic Hillard, James Wurst, of the engineering capstone group, FishNET, on a successful semester of designing and executing the integration of an RFID scanner into a handheld fishing net.

With help from mentors at Montana State University and Yellowstone Ecological Research Center, this team has designed a functional prototype (see video). The new technology is set to revolutionize the way sport anglers become high-quality citizen scientists and contribute accurate information to manage healthy fish populations.

To measure fish populations, scientists use Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT tags) to tag a sample of fish. An RFID (Radio Frequency Identifier) scanner is later used to read the PIT tag and generate re-capture data. By comparing the number of tagged versus untagged fish upon re-survey, scientists can measure population size as well as other vital information on survival and movement. With the novel integration of the RFID scanner into the rim of a landing net, sport anglers can now become citizen scientists and contribute data with every catch. Once the net makes contact with the water, it turns on the system to automatically scan and record the fish for a PIT tag as it enters the net. The net will then send data from the PIT tag to YERC’s mobile app.

The team is hard at work putting finishing touches on the RFID integration and perfecting its ability to communicate with YERC’s mobile app.

Our goal is to create an easy and accessible way for anyone to get involved in scientific research and conservation efforts. We hope that by integrating the RFID scanner into a handheld fishing net, we can encourage more people to get excited about citizen science and help the scientific community better understand fish populations.