{
  "id": 11770696,
  "title": "Angler’s Pokedex: Youth build free app to help identify and log Singapore’s fish",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/03/anglers-pokedex-youth-build-free-app-to-help-identify-and-log",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-03T21:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Straits Times",
    "slug": "straits-times",
    "url": "https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/anglers-pokedex-youth-build-free-app-to-help-identify-and-log-singapores-fish"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Singapore's strategic location near a region rich in marine biodiversity has resulted in a surprising variety of fish species being caught by anglers. However, these catches are often misidentified by those who are not familiar with the local species. Brian Sng, a 21-year-old software engineering student at Singapore Management University, recognized the value of a rare catch and alerted another angler to the zonetail butterfly ray, an endangered fish. To prevent such misidentifications, Sng founded the Ichthyological Society of Singapore, which launched a free mobile app called SGFish on September 17.\n\nThe app uses image recognition to identify more than 900 fish species found in Singapore's waters using a dataset of over 90,000 photos. Users can submit photos of their catches, and the app will provide a list of possible species, ranked by similarity. The app also logs the location of each find and maintains scientific integrity through manual verification by volunteers. To ensure accuracy, the app shows the top five predictions for each scanned fish and alerts users if the caught species is rare or protected. Additionally, the app includes tide data and a fish encyclopaedia to enhance the user experience.\n\nThe developers hope to expand the app to the Google Play Store and incorporate features from the popular Angler's Pokedex Telegram bot, such as a high-score board. Fish biologist Jeffrey Kwik emphasizes the importance of citizen science initiatives like SGFish in supplementing official fish surveys, which are limited by factors like water visibility and the difficulty of spotting well-camouflaged species.",
  "summary": "It includes a pop-up feature that alerts users on what to do if a scanned fish is a protected, rare or harmful species.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}