There are many programs in California that are actively gathering, compiling and analyzing fish and aquatic habitat data. Bringing all of this information together and making it available to a variety of users is crucial to the success of fisheries and habitat monitoring, evaluation, and management within the state. Centralizing access to California fisheries data makes it much easier to develop and maintain state-wide data standards and promote further development of related data programs in California. CalFish addresses the needs of a variety of natural resource management agencies by serving as both data publisher and data clearinghouse, providing access to original data and links to sites with related fish and aquatic habitat information.
CalFish provides direct access to many different types of data relating to fish and aquatic habitat data. These data include categories such as:
- Population trends and counts
- Distributions
- Migration barriers
- Hatcheries
- Habitat restoration projects
- Genetics
- Monitoring
Users are able to view these data via two basic methods: querying the database tables directly or querying the data geographically. The geographical queries are made possible with an interactive on-line mapping system. This system also provides access to a broad array of framework data (political boundaries, hydrography, quad maps, and many more) that make the spatial data even easier to analyze and understand. Because the tabular and geographical databases are linked, users can move easily between the two systems.
CalFish maintains a comprehensive and up-to-date list of links to a wide variety of fish and aquatic habitat data programs and other relevant web sites.
CalFish is a cooperative program involving a growing number of agency and organization partners. Such cooperative support has and will continue to guide the future development of CalFish and ensure the longevity and continued usefulness of the CalFish site.