Catch Reporting vs ER Buoy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Catch Reporting
This application allows fishermen to easily record and report their catch of highly migratory species (HMS) like tuna and sharks. It facilitates the logging of landings and releases directly from a boat, with data stored locally until an internet connection is available for submission.
- Record fishing trips
- Report catch of tuna, sharks, swordfish, billfish
- Log landings and releases
- Store data offline
- Submit reports via internet connection
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NOAA Fisheries' Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Management Division manages a number of fish species in U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters known as highly migratory species (HMS). These fish—tuna, sharks, swordfish, and billfish—live throughout the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico and often migrate long distances. Because these species cross domestic and international boundaries, the HMS Management Division is responsible for managing them under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. In cooperation with an advisory panel, the division develops and implements fishery management plans for these species taking into account all domestic and international requirements under the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Because these fish travel long distances, responsible management of HMS requires international cooperation through a number of agreements including the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This app provides fishermen an easy accessible tool to record their trips and report catch of bluefin tuna, blue marlin, white marlin, roundscale spearfish, sailfish, and swordfish. This app allows fishermen record their HMS landings and releases during their fishing trips on the boat. The information is stored in the device. User can submit the report to HMS when Internet connection is available.
ER Buoy
This application displays anonymized fishing gear locations in real-time to help fishermen deploy their gear safely and avoid conflicts. It indirectly contributes to reducing whale entanglements and mortality by minimizing gear interaction.
- Real-time location sharing
- Anonymized fishing gear display
- Minimizes gear conflict
- Reduces whale entanglements
- No login required
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This app enables users with an iOS or iPadOS device to automatically send their location to the EarthRanger platform so that anonymized on-demand fishing gear within 5 nautical miles of the user's location can be shown on the map in real-time. This app makes it easier for fishermen to deploy their ropeless gear while minimizing gear conflict with other fishermen, and indirectly reduces whale entanglements with fishing gear and reduces whale mortality There is no login required to use this app. All gear data shown is completely anonymized to ensure data privacy. Terms of use are governed by the EarthRanger End User License Agreement (EULA), which is available at https://EarthRanger/EULA. For more information about Al2's policy on location data, please visit https://www.earthranger.com/privacy-policy.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ER Buoy at 5.0 against Catch Reporting's 1.4. ER Buoy also leads on update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 5 months). Catch Reporting's advantage is ratings volume (25 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ER Buoy holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Catch Reporting has 25 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Catch Reporting ships an update every 5 months, ER Buoy every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Catch Reporting | ER Buoy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.4 (25 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 25 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.4 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Allen Institute for AI |
Customer experience
Catch Reporting
ER Buoy
In-app purchases
Catch Reporting
No in-app purchases
ER Buoy
No in-app purchases






