Bycatch has an app, in Android and IOS versions. These apps allow the project participants to upload bycatch pictures to the Natusfera database anonymously.

First session and main menu:

The first time we open the app, it will show a dialog with links to the privacy policy and user agreements. It’s important to read, understand and accept the conditions in these documents. Once this is done, we can start using the app. In this screen, we can also choose the language we want to use the app in; the language is ‘remembered’ in following sessions, but the user can change it at any time from the main menu.

Once inside the app, we find ourselves in the main menu. From this menu we can:

  • Access the user agreement and privacy policy documents
  • Change the app language
  • Go to ‘My captures’ – This is the screen that shows a list of all logged captures
  • Go to ‘Add captures’ – This is the form for uploading captures to Natusfera

The capture form

This form allows the user to upload captures. This form uses location, so the first time it’s used it will ask for permission to do so. Location is not mandatory, but it improves the quality of the gathered data!

This form has the following fields (in bold mandatory fields):

  • Capture gear – The type of fishing gear in which the accidental capture has happened.
  • Image – Very important and mandatory. A picture of the accidental capture, as clear as possible.
  • Ship name – The name of the fishing ship where the incident happened
  • Capture type – Here we say in a general way what has been caught (Seabird, Mammal, etc.)
  • More precisely – Refinement of the category in ‘Capture type’. For instance, ‘Seabirds’ -> ‘European shag’. This field is disabled by default, a value in Capture type must be chosen first to unlock it.
  • Ringed – If the captured animal is ringed, we can say so here. If we choose ‘Yes’, a text field will appear where we can write the code in the ring. Although this field is not mandatory, if the capture is ringed it’s very important to enter this data: it’s key when processing the information.
  • Observations – Free comments field. Add anything of note here.

Contributions to the project are anonymous, but as you will surely have noticed there are some data that could identify the user. For instance, the ship’s name or the location. All fields are uploaded to Natusfera encrypted or codified, so a casual observer won’t be able to read any of these fields.

The location will not be shown in Natusfera. Only the project administrators will be able to access the capture locations.

Saving data:

When the form is complete, we click on ‘Save capture’. Then, the app tries to upload the capture to Natusfera, and add it to the Bycatch project. One of two things can happen:

  • The capture is correctly uploaded
  • The capture can’t be uploaded due to a network error

If the capture can’t be uploaded, it is not lost. It’s stored locally in the device and we can try again the upload we we can access better connectivity.

The picture has been correctly saved; locally in the device and remotely in Natusfera.

The picture has not been uploaded because of connectivity issues. We can try again later, when we have access to a stronger mobile signal.

What happens when one or more captures have failed to upload?

No problem. Data is stored locally in the mobile device, and in the main menu we can see a button that contains a warning sign saying that some captures are pending of upload. We can try the upload under a stronger mobile signal or when we can access a wifi hotspot.

Click on ‘Upload pending captures’ under better signal…

… and the locally stored data is uploaded to Natusfera. This process allows the upload of multiple pending captures at the same time.

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