For ichthyologists, researchers, and government officials, fish have been identified through the use of dichotomous keys. Dichotomous identification requires understanding fish anatomy, but is limiting due to most dichotomous field guides being region-based (1).

Other ways of identifying fish is through scales, otoliths, single nucleotide polymorphisms, and DNA (1). These methods are not very user friendly and are mostly used in a lab-based setting.

Fish guide applications have been in the works to allow fishermen and divers to access fish guides on their mobile devices. The Smithsonian is an example of this as they have been working to release an app for the Greater Caribbean and Tropical Eastern Pacific (2).

Uploading pictures to social media has aided researchers in studying types of fish caught recreationally that would be seen otherwise (3). Fishermen have also presented fishing experts with pictures of fish they are unsure of to get an accurate identification which has improved fish population assessments.

There is no digital application that may be used for identifying local fish species, there are many online fliers. But there are many online resources on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website where the current regulations, pictures, and charts may be found. The online resources, however, are a difficult to navigate for someone new to fish identification. There is a site called https://www.recfin.org/resources/fishid/ that you can access for groundfish resources such as: rockfish, sculpin, lingcod, and greenlings.

With the large amount of fish species available, future research and outreach must occur to make fish identification more accessible to those out at sea without service or smart phones.

Ensuring fish are properly identified helps for research purposes when fishing interviews are conducted with fishermen to collect fishing trip data. It is also important for fishermen to be able to identify fish correctly so they can avoid catching illegal species and will know if they have caught their intended target.