An Electronic Measuring Board with Bar Codes
Michael F. Sigler · Transactions of the American Fisheries Society · 1994
A measuring board was devised to electronically record fish lengths during surveys at sea. The board is marked in 1-cm increments labeled with bar codes. A fish is placed on the board, and its length is recorded by stroking the bar code at the tip of the tail of the fish with a penlike bar code reader. Large numbers of fish lengths and related data can be recorded quickly and accurately with the board. Electronic data recording eliminates keying and data checking and the data are recorded in a form directly accessible to computers. The electronic measuring board with bar codes is well suited for field use because it is waterproof and has no mechanical parts that can be fouled by fish blood and slime or corroded by seawater. The system is adaptable to recording other categorical data besides length.