FishSense Lite: A Camera-Based, Single Laser Hardware Framework with Software System for In Situ Fish Length Measurement

Christopher L. Crutchfield; Kyle Hu; Nathan Hui; Omair Qazi; Jennifer Loch; Alli Candelmo; Brice X. Semmens; Curt Schurgers; Ryan Kastner

arXiv · 2611.08732

FishSense Lite: A Camera-Based, Single Laser Hardware Framework with Software System for In Situ Fish Length Measurement

Christopher L. Crutchfield·Kyle Hu·Nathan Hui·Omair Qazi·Jennifer Loch·Alli Candelmo·Brice X. Semmens·Curt Schurgers·Ryan Kastner

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Abstract

Fish stock assessments need fish lengths paired with species from far more places than trained surveyors can reach. Recreational divers already visit many of those places, but measuring a fish underwater has required trained observers or specialist equipment. We present FishSense Lite, which recovers fish length from a single photograph taken with a recreational dive camera, a dive laser pointer, and a 3D-printed mount. The diver aims the laser at a fish and takes a picture; afterward, the dot's position in the image gives the range to the fish, and the range turns the fish's size in the image into a length. A citizen-science program, trained by the system's builders, taught its own divers and collected lengths paired with species for 73 wild fish across seven open-water dives. On seven wild fish also measured by an underwater stereo-imaging system, the two instruments agreed without detectable bias (mean difference +0.8%). On rigid targets of known length, FishSense Lite recovered every target to within 1.3%, and 99% of 1,055 frames fell within a 15% error budget. From the error sources we measure, we derive a field protocol: calibrate against a dive slate on every dive, photograph fish within 15 degrees of perpendicular and beyond 1 m, and take at least ten frames of each.

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Christopher L. Crutchfield, Kyle Hu, Nathan Hui, Omair Qazi, Jennifer Loch, Alli Candelmo, Brice X. Semmens, Curt Schurgers, Ryan Kastner. 2026-11-05. FishSense Lite: A Camera-Based, Single Laser Hardware Framework with Software System for In Situ Fish Length Measurement. https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.08732

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