We count fish because it matters. Hundreds of millions of people rely on healthy fish populations and the blue economy for food, jobs, and recreation. It is the biggest fish in the water that contribute the most to the next generation. Big fish are an indicator of the strength and maturity of any species as well as the health of the aquatic system in general. For fish information to be useful one needs to know how many of a certain species are present. It may be straightforward to identify a single fish species in a particular area, but that is not enough for a proper scientific analysis.

Fish are not only one of the most important resources in our oceans, lakes and rivers, but they are a critical indicator of the health of our entire aquatic ecosystem and our planet at large.Ĭounting fish is, not surprisingly, hard.