It was truly fish for all at Mangawhai Beach School last week with a seafood BBQ lunch won by pupil Emma McCardle in the first Fish4all Seaweek Poetry Competition. Mangawhai Beach School teacher Rebecca Low says the Fish4all Seaweek Poetry Competition, open to all primary and intermediate schools in New Zealand, provided the school with a fun and engaging learning opportunity. “This competition gave the students an authentic purpose to practise their writing and the Fish4All app, which encourages sustainable fishing through collecting data; it tied in perfectly with our celebration of Seaweek." Fish4all is a free New Zealand fishing app, not only a fun and easy-to-use virtual catch log and way to take and share pictures while at sea, but a sustainable fishing tool. It collates anonymous catch data, which the Fish4All Charitable Trust manages to enhance and better manage recreational fisheries. The Fish4all Seaweek Poetry Competition was judged by prize-winning published poet Ria Masae, winner of the 2015 New Voices: Emerging Poets Competition, as well as the 2016 Cooney Insurance Short Story Competition. She says while all entries were delightful, Emma's stood out as the winner with her use of alliteration to produce a coherent and delightful poem. “Not only did she skilfully execute complete lines in this style of poetry, but also divided a line into more than one set of alliterations, ‘Gary the Gurnard greedily grunts after gobbling up Kyle the Kawhai in Makatu and he is now heading for Mangawhai’. “Her wonderful characterisation of the sea life such as, Might Mike the Marlin and AJ the American Eel, reads like something out of a story book.” Emma McCardle says: “I feel really surprised and proud about winning the competition. I chose to write an alliteration poem because I wanted to do something different. “And, I think the Fish4all fishing app is really cool because you can record your catch and share it with other people.” The Fish4all team is coming all the way from Wellington to help dish up the prize BBQ with all the seafood provided by their sponsors, Sealord New Zealand and Moana New Zealand. Pupils will also learn how to cook fish in different ways from local chef Mike Hynes and his partner Vanessa, owner/operators of local food company Vintage Distribution. Fish4all’s Tony Craig says being involved with Seaweek is a great way to spread the word about Fish4all and to engage with a generation where IT is part of everyday life. “We hope to see this competition grow each year and see more and more classes across New Zealand having the chance to win such a fun prize. We have been blown away by their quick uptake and the brilliant level of wider community support we have received.” Seaweek national co-ordinator Dr Mels Barton says involvement in this year's national Seaweek poetry competition has been impressive. “We’re delighted at the level of school involvement, and a standard of entries so high it was a tough decision for the judges. Congratulations to Emma and her classmates at Mangawhai Beach School and thanks to Fish4all for hosting such an inspiring competition for our future generations of marine kaitiaki to enter.”

Kiwi Fishing App Now Available in Te Reo Māori

New Zealand’s first free home-grown recreational fishing app, Fish4All, is now available in te reo Māori celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Māori language week 11-17 September.

Launched in 2014 by two Kiwi recreational fishers, Fish4All is a digital fishing tool allowing anglers to log catches against a wide range of species, keep trip records and share images.

It also enables users to contribute toward sustainable recreational fisheries. Every catch they log adds to build the critically needed information pool so fish stocks can be managed to ensure that everyone gets their fair share now and into the future.

“Making Fish4All available in te reo Māori is our contribution to this wonderful living language,” says Fish4All co-founder and keen angler Tony Craig.

“We are also acknowledging and celebrating the precious relationship Māori have with coastal seafoods as a valued taonga (treasure), which they endeavour to care for as kaitiaki (guardians).”

But Fish4All hasn’t stopped there, with the app also now available in New Zealand’s other top languages of Mandarin, Hindi and Tagalog (Filipino).

“We believe all New Zealanders, no matter where they come from, want to care for this precious shared resource”.

“And information is the key. Making Fish4All available in our top languages means everyone can play their part by providing valuable catch data. Even ‘no fish’ caught is very valuable information. No matter whether you fish on the water or from the shore it’s all important.”

Tony says translation process has been a community voluntary effort involving tapping into a web-base of global freelancers and generous support from New Zealanders keen to support their communities to fish responsibly.

“It’s been a real community effort and extremely rewarding learning how many people do care about sustainable recreational fisheries. So, we encourage people to download Fish4All, in Android and iPhone. Go the to the language section, choose your language and get set up to go!”

Fish4All has also established the Fish4All Charitable Trust to manage and protect the data that is generated by users, ensuring privacy is protected and data is available exclusively by and for recreational fishing interests.

For more information contact

tony@fish4all.co.nz

021375730

www.fish4all.co.nz

Click here to read Tony's interview with the Dom Post. "The natural environment I've grown up in has been fantastic, the ability to catch a good feed of fish or paua when I want has been a privilege, but you can't take that for granted anymore" ..."I look into my grandchildren's eyes and I think about what it is they will have in the future and what I can do to make sure that becomes a reality, I want them to have the same freedom and those same experiences I have had."

New Zealanders deserve a better way to manage our fisheries than the current system that incentivises annual battles over who gets the last crumbs of an ever-diminishing pie. The latest round of decisions on "pie shares" were announced last week with Minister of Fisheries Nathan Guy's changes to total allowable catches in some rock lobster fisheries in New Zealand....read more

Kiwi anglers can log their catch and help create insight into fish stocks with New Zealand’s only free recreational fishing app.

Fish4All, available on iPhone and Android, was developed by two Kiwi recreational fishing enthusiasts Tony Craig and John Murphy, who launched a pilot trial in 2014.

Based on user feedback and with new business partner Katherine Short, Fish4All has launched a new version – including out of cell coverage data entry, allowing recreational fishers to record where, when and how many fish they catch and add more fish species to report against.

“As well as being a great digital fishing tool, every time you log your catch, you’re also helping create greater insight into New Zealand’s fish stocks by building the data critically needed to manage our fisheries,” says Tony.

With new business partner Katherine, Fish4All has also established the Fish4All Charitable Trust to manage and protect the data that is generated by users, ensuring it’s available exclusively by and for recreational fishing interests.

Sustainable fishery

“New Zealand has more than 600,000 recreational fishers who are mad about the sport. And we’ve got more than four million other Kiwis who don’t go fishing but would probably like to think that communal resource is being fished responsibly,” say Tony.

“Fish4All is a way recreational fishers can enhance and enjoy their sport and help build a shared sustainable fishery for all.”

Fish4All has been welcomed by community fishing organisations including iwi groups such as Te Korowai, the Kaikoura Coastal Marine Guardians. Facilitator Peter Lawless says it’s essential to getting good information on recreational fishing on the Kaikoura coast.

“We are encouraging all our recreational fishers to use the app. The kids in our Curious Minds programme have been helping and showing their elders the new technology can be friendly rather than frightening,” says Peter.

Privacy protected

Fish4All ensures user privacy is protected with only users able to view their own information, while everyone’s information can be pooled and collated into recreational catch effort locally, regionally and nationally.

Tony says the next step is to work with users to develop the fishing diary section so each user will have their own easy access records they can look up and see where they were fishing, bait they were using, weather condition, tide times – at the very same time each year.

“Ultimately, Fish4All is a great step toward looking after what New Zealanders consider a privilege and a right – a summertime fishing trip with fresh catch for dinner.”

Fish4All is running a summer fishing photo competition for app users and new users with winners to feature in the Winter edition of top fishing magazine ‘New Zealand Bay Fisher’ which supports the app. Fishers can enter through the Fish4all Facebook page.

Fishing App for recreational fishers

A sustainability consultant behind a new fishing app is hoping anglers will get on board with it so more data on recreational catch is recorded. Currently there is little reliable information on the scale of recreational fishing - and what stocks, in which regions, might be in decline and whether recreational fishers are getting their fair share of take. Tony Craig is a keen fisherman with a background in sustainable management systems who is one of the people who has come up with the Fish4All app.

Kiwi anglers will be able to log their catch this summer - and contribute to data around our fish stocks - thanks to a free app.

The Fish4All app, available on iPhone and Android, was launched by Kiwi recreational fishers Tony Craig and John Murphy in 2014.

It's now been relaunched as a new version, which enables out-of-cell-coverage data entry and recreational fishers to record where, when and how many fish they catch, and added more fish species to report against.

"As well as being a great digital fishing tool, every time you log your catch, you're also helping create greater insight into New Zealand's fish stocks by building the data critically needed to manage our fisheries," Craig said.

Fish4All has also established the Fish4All Charitable Trust to manage and protect the data that is generated by users, ensuring it's available exclusively by and for recreational fishing interests.

"New Zealand has more than 600,000 recreational fishers who are mad about the sport," Craig said.

"And we've got more than four million other Kiwis who don't go fishing but would probably like to think that communal resource is being fished responsibly."

The app has been welcomed by community fishing organisations including iwi groups such as Te Korowai, the Kaikoura Coastal Marine Guardians, whose facilitator Peter Lawless said it was essential to getting good information on recreational fishing on the Kaikoura coast.

"We are encouraging all our recreational fishers to use the app. The kids in our Curious Minds programme have been helping and showing their elders that the new technology can be friendly rather than frightening."

Craig said the next step was to work with users to develop the fishing diary section, so each user will have their own easy access records that they could look up and see where they were fishing, bait they were using, weather condition, tide times - at the very same time each year.

- NZ Herald

South Otago High School pupil Mitchell Hollows (18), of Balclutha, was named winner of the supreme innovator award and the senior engineering award after inventing a laser tool he hoped would save the lives of thousands of native paua.

A keen fisherman, Mitchell has been diving for paua for a couple of years.

It was on a fishing trip that he discovered paua are haemophiliac and can be damaged by physical measuring - the traditional method of measuring catch.

This inspired him to develop the ''koru paua tool'', a laser that measures paua in a non-invasive way to help preserve paua fishing beds.

He hoped the tool would boost the paua population and help save the species.

Balmacewen Intermediate pupil Aaron Nelson (11) won the junior software award for creating a robot that can set the dinner table.

It is named Rats - Robotic Automatic Table-Setter - and it can set knives and forks for up to four people, as well as put the salt and pepper shakers out.

Aaron said he was less than enthusiastic when his parents asked him to set the table for dinner each night, and he was inspired to create the robot when his parents threatened him with ''no dinner until the table is set''.

He said it made the chore more interesting.

The Bright Sparks Awards is New Zealand's premier showcase for tech-savvy young minds, in categories which include science, engineering, environment, and software.

Author Dr Randall Bess said the depletion of some fish stocks and increases in New Zealand's population and tourism numbers meant fishing would increasingly come under threat.

About 600,000 New Zealanders go fishing every year, but New Zealand has no recreational ocean fishing permits or reporting requirements and generous bag limits. This was not sustainable for a population projected to increase from 4.7 million to 6 million by 2060, he said... Read more

Kaikoura is poised to become the poster region for data-rich fisheries management under an agreement signed between the Fish4All Charitable Trust and coastal guardian group Te Korowai o Te Tai o Marokura...

Sanford says it is prepared to stop all commercial fishing in the Hauraki Gulf if recreational fishermen record and report their catch."Complete transparency and data on all fishing in the Gulf is an important future step to preserving the fish stocks for future generations," Kuntzsch said..Apps like Fish4All were a good start but more work.....

Links:

Just in time for summer the Fish4all app is now available for android smartphones. Unveiled for iPhones earlier this year, the free app has been developed to gather data that can provide better information on where and how recreational fishing is occurring.

Fish4all investor and recreational fisher Tony Craig says for individual fishers the app is a perfect fishing diary and a way for fishers to share and compare catch details with their mates and fishing clubs.

“For the recreational sector, data gathered from the app can be used enhance the overall picture of recreational interests in our precious resources,” he says.

Gathering data on recreational fishers has generally sat in the “technically difficult basket” but with smartphone technology and a commitment by the recreational sector, the Fish4all team has found a solution that is fun and supports sustainable fisheries management.

Fishers are encouraged to give the app a go and to send in their feedback and suggestions to the Fish4all team.

“The next three months will be considered a trial period for our 1.0 version of the app and an opportunity for recreational fishers to tell us what they think. People can get in touch with us through our Facebook page or website to let us know what features they like and what they would like added,” Mr Craig says.

Over the summer the Fish4all team will also be working with recreational fishing organisations to determine the best way for the sector to maintain collected data over the long term.

Fish4all investor John Murphy says, “This is an app that was built by recreational fishers for recreational fishers. Our intention with this app is that all the data will be controlled by the sector.”

He adds that by taking voluntary action to gather fishing data, the recreational sector will be in a stronger position to contribute to shared fisheries management.

“The Fish4all app provides a fun and easy way for recreational fishers of any age to contribute to improving our knowledge and understanding of recreational fishing activity.”

To learn more or to download the app visit www.Fish4all.co.nz.

Background information

How is recreational fishing data currently collected? Traditionally recreational catch and effort levels have been determined through Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) periodic phone, boat ramp and aerial surveys. These methods only provide a snapshot of what’s happening within recreational fisheries.

The Fish4all team believes technology advancements combined with increased smartphone use means the previously impossible is now possible. The Fish4all app will gather data that can provide better information on where and how recreational fishing is occurring.

What are the benefits of the app? For individual fishers there are three main benefits to the app: 1) It serves as a personal fishing diary and offers a way for fishers to compare their catch with others in their region and the North Island and South Island. 2) Fishers can take photos and brag to their mates. 3) By using the app fishers can help raise funds for the sector by simply taking advantage of special discounts, competitions and deals that will only be available to app users (users who don’t want to be notified can opt out). The app has been built for either marine or freshwater fishing.

While the app is a fun way to gather information, it’s also a way of contributing to the sustainability of our fish stocks. The app is the brainchild of recreational fishers Tony Craig and John Murphy who recognise that recreational fishing trends are not well understood in New Zealand (a common problem worldwide).

Will fisher information be protected? To maintain privacy for those who use the app, only email addresses and “handles” are required to register.

What data will be collected? While individual privacy is protected, for the sector the app will provide important information on catches, fishing methods, and time spent fishing by region. It will also provide demographics in terms of age, sex and ethnicity.

This reported information can be sliced and diced by the recreational sector to better understand recreational interest in shared fisheries and can be used as and when desired by the sector to inform fisheries management decisions. The data will be held in a database that will be owned and controlled by the recreational sector.

What next? The app is being released in December to encourage the recreational fishing community to use it over the summer and provide valuable feedback to the Fish4all team so that improvements can be made to both the overall experience for users and the amount of information being gathered.

Throughout the summer competitions with prizes will be held to encourage fishers to sign up and use the app. The Fish4all team is looking to partner with related fishing suppliers (for example, fuel, boat, bait, tackle) during these trial months to increase the number of prize opportunities for app sign ups and therefore Fish4all’s reach.

ENDS

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.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....Read more

NZ’s Recreational Fishing Reporting Tool – Fish4all has a new app foryou tech savvy fishers. They say this app provides a simple way for you to record your catch on your smartphone. Why? Because it’s the right and responsible thing to do! For a download to your iPhone go to http://www.fish4all.co.nz/ but keep the fish scales and bait scraps out of the phone!