FISHstory

Travel back to the docks of Daytona Beach, Florida from the 1940’s through 70’s through the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s (SAFMC) pilot project FISHstory. This project will train citizen science volunteers to identify and count fish in historic fishing photos. Data collected with your help will provide a novel picture of the fishery prior to dedicated monitoring programs and help improve our understanding of the fishery for several iconic species.

Species composition and length data can be critical to accurately estimate stock productivity and there is very little information from 1940 to 1970 when for-hire fisheries off the Atlantic coast of Florida were gaining popularity. As a result, it’s critical that we fill these data gaps to help evaluate assumptions about stock productivity. Historic photos, untapped sources of this important biological data, can help do just that. Analyzing the photos will help provide better information of what people were catching during this time period, seasonality of their catches, and possibly estimate a rough catch per angler which can provide insights on the health of fish populations.