About fishIDER


fishIDER is a bilingual (English and Bahasa Indonesia), web-based fish identification resource and training tool. The idea for developing this resource came from witnessing first-hand how field enumerators and other fisheries staff in Indonesia often struggle to make confident identifications of fish that are in ‘less-than-fresh’ condition. Accurate fish identification is an essential and fundamental requirement of all fisheries monitoring programs. Fisheries assessments routinely rely on fish catch data, as recorded by port based-enumerators and/or on-board observers. The quality of those assessments can be significantly impacted by data that is flawed as a result of incorrectly identified fish species.
For the many fish species commonly caught and landed by the Indonesian fishing fleets, there are excellent identification resources available in the form of books, ID sheets and booklets, some of which are available on the Useful Resources page. However, the photos and images used to illustrate these species tend to display them in their best (i.e. fresh) condition, displaying ‘live’ colours, clearly visible external markings and minimal damage. Fish occurring in data collection situations have often been on board fishing vessels or on ice in the market for several days, and their less-than-fresh condition, with loss of characteristic features, makes quick, positive identifications difficult. This webresource includes taxonomic, biological and fisheries information for the most commonly caught species, but most importantly, photo documentation of species in market situations in various states of ‘freshness’ and maturity (where required). For each species there is also an interactive learning and testing facility to improve identification skills.
We hope fishIDER will prove a useful resource for all persons tasked with identifying fish in the field, whether that be for fisheries monitoring purposes or for other research requirements. And although the focus is primarily on species commonly encountered in Indonesia, we hope the resource is also of benefit to persons working in other areas of SE Asia and other tropical regions.

  1. White W.T., Last P.R., Dharmadi, Faizah R., Chodrijah U., Prisantoso B.I., Pogonoski J.J., Puckridge M. and Blaber S.J.M. 2013. Market fishes of Indonesia (= Jenis-jenis ikan di Indonesia). ACIAR Monograph No. 155. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research: Canberra. 438 pp.

  2. White W.T., Last P.R., Stevens J.D., Yearsley G.K., Fahmi, and Dharmadi. 2006. Economically important sharks and rays of Indonesia (= Hiu dan pari yang bernilai ekonomis penting di Indonesia). ACIAR Monograph No. 124. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research: Canberra. 329 pp.

The majority of ‘fish market photos’ used in fishIDER are from the photo collections of William White and Craig Proctor, scientists at CSIRO Marine Laboratories in Hobart, and from partner scientists in Indonesia’s fisheries research institutes. Each photo will be tagged with acknowledgement of its source (apart from those from the CSIRO collections). We encourage ‘donation’ of the use of fish market photos from other persons, and acknowledgement is assured for every photo used. If you have photos that you feel would be useful for this website, please contact us on our contact page.

[1“Fish” in this context includes the bony fishes (Osteichthyes) and sharks and rays (Chondrichthyes). Eventually, contingent on available funding, we hope to extend the resource to include invertebrates; most notably prawns, lobsters, crabs, squids, and shellfish.

Helen O’Neill

Web Content Analyst CSIRO National Research Collections Australia

Helen’s primary interests are fish population biology and ecology, anthropogenic impacts on fisheries resources, fisheries management and also fish taxonomy. Helen first began at CSIRO as a Volunteer Fellow at the Australian National Fish Collection in October 2016, working on the egg case morphology of catsharks. Soon after, Helen became employed by CSIRO Marine Laboratories to develop and populate fishIDER.

Enjah Rahmat

Research Technician Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia

Enjah is a Research Technician at the Research Institute for Marine Fisheries (RIMF), Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Republic of Indonesia since 1993. Enjah’s field of research is on large pelagic fish resources. He has participated in several research projects including the Indo-Pacific Tuna Development and Management Program (IPTP-FAO), Java Sea Pelagic Fishery Assessment Project (ORSTOM Commission Of The European Communities) and on The Southern Bluefin Tuna Research Program in The Indian Ocean (CSIRO, Australia).

Craig Proctor

Fisheries Scientist CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere, Hobart

Craig is a fisheries scientist and has been based at CSIRO Marine Labs in Hobart since 1987. His role in this project is primarily as a facilitator and for inputs on fishing operations and sources of data on the Indonesian fisheries. During the past 15 years, Craig has spent a lot of time in Indonesia for Australia-Indonesia collaboration projects in marine fisheries, with particular focus on tuna fisheries. He has developed long term working relationships with many of Indonesia’s fisheries scientists and with other staff of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. He speaks fluent Bahasa Indonesia.

William White

Senior Research Scientist CSIRO National Research Collections Australia

Will’s research focuses primarily on the ecology, taxonomy and biogeography of sharks and rays, and also taxonomy and biogeography of Indo-Pacific bony fishes. He has authored descriptions of more than 60 new sharks and rays, as well as 6 new bony fishes. Will has a strong research focus on fisheries in developing countries, primarily Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.