Case Studies

Recreational fishing app makes information accessible

The Challenge

Accessing and communicating critical information

Maintaining sustainability of fisheries is crucial to a thriving economy and environment. The Queensland Government’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF; the Department) is responsible for the sustainable management of fisheries resources of the state, ensuring necessary rules and regulations are implemented and communicated effectively.

DAF were looking to update their existing recreational fishing app with a significantly enhanced version that would provide access to the rules and restrictions applicable for fishers in Queensland waters. The restrictions apply to hundreds of different species, types of equipment and most challengingly, are specific to particular locations with details sourced from multiple organisations. DAF needed to make it easier for fishers to understand and find information about these restrictions via a single app.

DAF engaged Lapis to develop a modern, engaging recreational fishing mobile application enabling fishers to easily access fishing rules, restrictions and species information. The application also facilitates enhanced two-way communication and offers a machine learning-driven species identification capability.

The new app needed to facilitate improved access to up-to-date regulations with the flexibility for future legislative changes to be easily incorporated without the need to update the app. Two-way communication capabilities mean that fishers can be notified of pending closed seasons or other significant events as well as being able to report events directly to DAF.

The most challenging feature is the ability to identify species using image recognition. Through machine learning, this feature is designed to eventually identify many more of the hundreds of species that are found in Queensland’s waters with high accuracy using images submitted by fishers.

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The Approach

Rich information with an enhanced user experience

Known as ‘QLD Fishing 2.0’, the app features two key mechanisms for finding rules and restrictions:

A powerful text search that provides access to Species and equipment-based restrictions; and
An interactive map that allows fishers to tap on a location and be presented with the relevant restrictions for the selected area.

Information from multiple organisations is consolidated in this app, with both capabilities available even when there is no data connectivity.

The content is maintained via headless CMS, meaning that the information, maps and images are maintained in a central location and retrieved and cached by the app when changes occur. This allows for information to be constantly updated and added without requiring the fisher to update the app.

“The team of developers at Lapis delivered a modern, functional and successful mobile app that allows recreational fishers to understand fishing rules and location-based restrictions which has helped to increase compliance.”

Charmaine Watkins, Manager, Digital Solutions, Fisheries Queensland

To highlight changes in rules and restrictions, the app promotes enhanced two-way communication between Queensland Fisheries and recreational fishers through a notification feature that allows push notifications to be sent to all app users informing them of rule changes, app content changes, events and more, in real time; and a contact feature allowing fishers to easily make an enquiry or report.

The app includes an educational element by providing information about fish species including images, rules, details, and for a select number of species, some statistics. The Stats page is a new feature that harnesses some of the measurement data the Department is collecting via its fish measurement program. The app allows fishers to discover the likely age of a fish based on its length in comparison to other measured fish or where the fish sits in comparison with the other measured fish.

As part of the solution, Lapis undertook a major overhaul of the app’s user experience with a sleek dark mode interface and a clean and elegant presentation of information. Small onboarding animations were included to demonstrate new features, as well as haptic UX elements (vibrations) and additional animations to guide users through the app’s functions.

The Results

Improved communication between fishers and fisheries

The custom application has enabled the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to effectively inform and communicate with recreational fishers. Key benefits to the Department include the following:

Increased compliance with fishing regulations
Better informed recreational fishing community
Modern, smooth, responsive and intuitive application
Interactive fish identification using image recognition
Powerful text search capability to find rules and species information
Interactive map to determine location-based restrictions from multiple sources
Facilitates improved communication between DAF and app users/fishers through real-time notifications

UN Sustainble Development Goals

Goal 14: Life Below Water

The solution works to “strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage” (Target 11.4).

In promoting the sustainability of ‘life below water’, the app contributes to “sustainably managing and protecting marine and coastal ecosystems” (Target 14.1) and “effectively regulating harvesting and ending overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices” (Target 14.4).

For more information on the Sustainable Development Goal Targets and Indicators, visit: sustainabledevelopment.un.org

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