Gone Fishin' . . . with a Smartphone

REDLANDS, Calif., May 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Fishing enthusiasts can now access live data on marine protected areas, weather, and tides based on GPS location using the new FishAlerts! app, built on Esri technology. The app, developed by Great Outdoors Mobile, also connects directly to Facebook and Twitter so anglers can swap fish stories, post photos, and socialize anytime.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130529/LA22749)

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110425/LA88950LOGO)

"FishAlerts! gives you more effective information about where you can and can't fish," said Harry Carpenter, founder and president of Great Outdoors Mobile, Inc. "At the same time, it helps protect the environment and gives fishermen a fun way to interact."

Carpenter said the idea for FishAlerts! came to him one Saturday when he was taking his sons fishing along the coast of Southern California. He asked at the local tackle store for information about restricted waters but did not receive specific enough information. Then he found a trifold local marine protected area flyer that he thought was liable to fly off his boat. He imagined having all the data he needed right there on his smartphone. So Carpenter, an established businessman, hired an iOS developer and a GIS specialist to make FishAlerts! a reality.

The Great Outdoors Mobile team used the Esri Ocean Basemap and ArcGIS to integrate data about restricted areas or closures. To build the app, the developers used Esri's ArcGIS Runtime SDK for iOS and ArcGIS Online to host the geodatabase. A FishAlerts! Android version is in the works using Esri's ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Android.

Since its release in March, FishAlerts! has had more than 125 users a day with steadily rising "likes" on Facebook and rave reviews at the App Store. Now Carpenter and his team are working to extend the app template into something that can be customized for and used by government agencies and other organizations worldwide.

About Esri
Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

About Great Outdoors Mobile, Inc.
Great Outdoors Mobile, Inc. (GOMI), was founded in September 2012. It is a mobile applications development company, specializing in software development and integration for the $646 billion dollar Outdoor Industry. Other intellectual properties that GOMI owns are FishAlerts!, BoatAlerts!, DiveAlerts!, KayakAlerts! and OutdoorAlerts! Its FishAlerts! app is available for download on the App Store and coming soon to Google Play. For more information, please visit us at greatoutdoorsmobile.com and fishalerts.com.

Copyright © 2013 Esri. All rights reserved. Esri, the Esri globe logo, GIS by Esri, ArcGIS, esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners.

SOURCE Esri

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