When you visit your physician's office, you expect that measures of blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol and other basic data is collected in a similar, standardized manner, no matter if you are in Alaska or Florida. However, until recently, simple data collection in freshwater fish sampling was not standardized. Through the efforts of Cooperative Research Unit scientists and the American Fisheries Society (AFS), this traditional approach is changing and a new online database has been launched to improve how research findings are compared and shared.

Increasingly, management and monitoring of fish and wildlife populations is being conducted across large landscapes. Therefore, data collection methods designed at the local level, while previously successful, are not currently sufficient. Through the publication of the book Standard Methods for Sampling North American Freshwater Fishes (AFS, 2009), Cooperative Research Unit scientists, in collaboration with the American Fisheries Society (AFS), and 284 biologists from 107 state, federal, and local agencies and NGO's, developed standard sampling procedures for freshwater ecosystems. As part of this project, 4,092 data sets of common indices (condition, length frequency, growth, and catch per effort) for 15 common North American fishes collected using AFS standard techniques were summarized. These summaries, based on data from 43 states and Canadian provinces, allow biologists to evaluate whether fish from a specific water body are average, below average, or above average for an index of choice. This aids in "diagnosis" of potential problems facing a fish population ? similar to a doctor comparing the cholesterol, blood pressure, and body temperature of an individual to population averages and percentiles for a particular age group or region.

Printed summaries, although useful, are difficult to compare, and cannot be updated easily. This is why, between 2011 and 2013, all 4,092 data sets were integrated into an electronic database, and a website and database tool were developed to allow easy comparisons of standardized fisheries data. This website allows users to compare fisheries data collected using AFS standard methods during an individual sampling event to rangewide, ecoregion, or state averages and percentiles of data indices also collected using AFS standard techniques. Further, it allows the user to easily create tables and graphs that can aid in fishery status evaluation, can be shared with other fisheries managers, or can be used in presentations and reports. The project is sponsored by the AFS Fish Management Section, U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, University of Arizona and University of Guadalajara (Mexico).

Similar to Wikipedia, the database is updated through "crowd sourcing." To analyze your data, you must first agree to allow it to contribute to the database. Therefore, the database is continually updated and improved over time. Before data are allowed into the database, they are checked for quality. Also similar to Wikipedia, donation and partnership opportunities are made available to improve the tool.

Since its release, scientists, students and fishery managers have visited the website, added their data to the existing databases, and expressed interest in utilizing the online tool in the future. Workshops and presentations on the tool have been given at regional fisheries conferences such as the Midwestern, Southern and Western Division of AFS and international conferences such as the AFS Annual Meetings in Seattle (WA), St. Paul (MN), Little Rock (AR) and the World Fisheries Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland. This collaborative effort, involving scientists across North America, will put new 21st century tools in the hands of fisheries managers to better diagnose and treat fish communities in jeopardy.

Each month, the ONB features articles from Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units across the country. Working with key cooperators, including WMI, Units are leading exciting, new fish and wildlife research projects that we believe our readers will appreciate reading about.