How To Sign Up To Lionfish Patrol
There are two ways to sign up for the Lionfish Patrol App –
- AVAILABLE NOW: Via Online on your computer or phone – Create an Account
- Coming Soon: Through the app itself – download the app from your app store
Either way you will have to use the link at the bottom to Create an Account.
When you create an account we ask for information that is designed to help you add your fish count faster by having the default information already in place. We also asked for information that helps create important data that can be used in the conservation efforts to eradicate lionfish.
Fields To Fill In
There are a few item we ask for that you may or may not understand why. Here is what we ask for and why.
Register As:
Divers & Fishers are the driving force of this app. They do all the work to add the catch totals. Their work helps create all the data and graphs that show the world what the global numbers are.
Nonprofit/Organizations can sign up and have divers share their numbers with them. They get access to the important data in hopes to find better solutions with the eradication efforts.
Business accounts are for any business that does anything with lionfish – scuba shops, dive charters, artists, restaurants, etc. They also get access to the data so they can see the efforts in their area. The goal is to have the business community help in the efforts to find creative ways to control the invasion.
Country & Region
Country – It’s important to learn which country has lionfish populations that are being removed. By tracking them by country locals can fine-tune reports and isolate specific data for a clearer picture of their numbers.
Region – There are 6 dive regions we track and they are Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Pacific. This way we can track data for specific areas and compare them to others. There will be all kinds of charts for divers, organizations and businesses to learn about each region.
Depth Measurement
Feet or Meters. Do you measure your dive depths in Meters or Feet? This is so you can keep your notes to your style of measurments and not have to calculate the proper number.
First, Last and Nickname
When you sign up you need to fill in your first and last name. You can also choose a nickname so when we create the social feed you can have a unique name.
Gender & Date of Birth
We will have all kinds of great data and graphs breaking down all kinds of data. Some of that will be age and gender breakdowns by local, regional and global – average ages, for a lot of cool reports.
Dive City (Dive Location)
This is a default location so when you do most of your diving in the same city you won’t have to choose that when adding your dive location. If you dive in a different city you can update that when you add your catch. This will be a great way to track catch amounts form locations areound the world.
Habitat Type
Natural or Artificial. Many divers have asked to track the kind of areas they hunt. If you dive natural reefs, ledges or any location that is natural then this would be your choice. In some areas there are not a lot of natural structures so they create artificial reefs – sunken ships, air planes, reef balls, etc., that would be the Artificial choice. You can update this when you add your catch totals. This too will create some great data that we can look at to see the difference in populations.
Dive Day Time
Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night. Another great suggestion by a diver is the time of day you do your diving. Here you can keep a record of your best times of day for catching lionfish and that data can be put into our global database to see trends. Also editable when you add your catch totals.
Reason For Catch
Personal or Wholesale. Many divers sell their catch and in some locations those wholesellers have to report those purchases. So when the science community runs report they use wholesale numbers for their data. Now they can use the Personal numbers to add to their reports. Before there was little to no way to track these important numbers. This can be edited when adding your catch.
Choose Organizations to link to
Organizations are listed and divers can choose them to share their totals with. So if Lionfish University wants to track their Field Reporters lionfish totals now they can. This will help show the hard work the nonprofits does in this fight.
That’s about it!
There are a few other items to fill in like email address, password, accept terms, etc. Once you have registered you will get an email with a verification link in it. Once verified you can log in and start filling in your lionfish totals.
Diver can use this as a lionfish dive log. Over time you will begin to see patterns and trends. You can even check out your numbers compared to your area, regions, globally and all kinds of great charts and information.
Organizations and Businesses can sign up and get access to the information from around the world. Over time we will be adding all kinds of great features for them as well. This app gets better as more people use it so help us help the world deal with the lionfish problem by adding your totals regularly.