Fishing enthusiasts can now access live data on marine protected areas, weather, and tides based on GPS location using the new FishAlerts! app, built on Esri technology. The app, developed by Great Outdoors Mobile, also connects directly to Facebook and Twitter so anglers can swap fish stories, post photos, and socialize anytime.
“FishAlerts! gives you more effective information about where you can and can’t fish,” said Harry Carpenter, founder and president of Great Outdoors Mobile, Inc. “At the same time, it helps protect the environment and gives fishermen a fun way to interact.”
Carpenter said the idea for FishAlerts! came to him one Saturday when he was taking his sons fishing along the coast of Southern California. He asked at the local tackle store for information about restricted waters but did not receive specific enough information. Then he found a trifold local marine protected area flyer that he thought was liable to fly off his boat. He imagined having all the data he needed right there on his smartphone. So Carpenter, an established businessman, hired an iOS developer and a GIS specialist to make FishAlerts! a reality.
The Great Outdoors Mobile team used the Esri Ocean Basemap and ArcGIS to integrate data about restricted areas or closures. To build the app, the developers used Esri’s ArcGIS Runtime SDK for iOS and ArcGIS Online to host the geodatabase. A FishAlerts! Android version is in the works using Esri’s ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Android.
Since its release in March, FishAlerts! has had more than 125 users a day with steadily rising “likes” on Facebook and rave reviews at the App Store. Now Carpenter and his team are working to extend the app template into something that can be customized for and used by government agencies and other organizations worldwide.
