A gonad photographs dataset for fish of commercial interest

This dataset was established during a one year project under the IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer) for the harmonisation of maturity data acquisition methods for bony fish of commercial interest, with the help of scientific campaign CGFS, EVHOE, IBTS and ACCOBIOM (Auber et al., 2021, Laffargue et al.,1987, Le Roy et al., 1988).

This dataset contains 4133 standardised gonad’s macroscopic photos of 61 species of fish of commercial interests collected along the European coastal water and the Caribbean Sea. The scale used throughout this project is the  ICES maturity scale “WKASMSF” (ICES, 2018). To have more details about the photography process used for photos in this database, check the “Fish gonads’ photography protocol” from Le Meleder et al. (2022).

This dataset is associated with a GitHub page hosting tools to generate maturity identification forms for fish of commercial interest. To have more detail about identification forms files and have the latest update, check the GitHub page “MaturityScaleTools” (LM-Anna/MaturityScaleTools: Maturity scale tools to identify visual maturity phases (github.com)).

This dataset is meant to be enriched with time. Photos may be added to complete the missing maturity phases for every species of the world. To have more details about the dataset or to add new photos, please contact annalemeleder@orange.fr or laurent.dubroca@ifremer.fr.

Images:

• Photo_MATURITY.zip : archive in zip format of  4133 macroscopic photographs of gonads (.JPG; 2Mo-6Mo; sRGB; 1080p). Each photo was taken with the same camera (OLYMPUS / Tough F2.0), on the same white background, with homogeneous lighting to avoid glints from overexposure. Since there are no duplicated photos’ names because all photos were taken with the same camera, names correspond to the one generated by the camera. Photos are sorted under three levels of directories :

  • First level : species’ scientific name (Example : Dicentrarchus labrax) : there are currently 61 different species listed

  • Second level : F or M : the sex, with F from females and M for male

  • Third level : A, B, C, D, E or F : the maturity phases of the ICES 2018 scale. In each folder are assigned the corresponding gonadic photos.

Data frames:

• photo_mat.xlsx (13 columns / 4133 rows): data table (Excel format) listing all photos in the Photo_MATURITY database, as well as the data associated with the photos. The data table is presented as followed, for each photo :

  • Name : Name of the photo

  • Type : Type of gonad photo (INT = inside without organs, INT ORG = inside with organs, EXT = outside, EXT OUV = outside and open, FLUANT = fluent)

  • sppeng : English vernacular name of the species or species group established for identification forms

  • Species : Scientific name of the species or species group established for identification guides

  • Sex : Sex of the fish (M = male, F = female)

  • phase ID :  visually estimated maturity phase (ICES WKASMSF scale : A, B, C, D, E or F)

  • Link : Link to the photo, to change depending on your path to the downloaded dataset  =LIEN_HYPERTEXTE(« (Your path to the dataset)\Photo_MATURITE\« &H_n& »\« &E_n& »\« &F_n& »\« &A_n& ».JPG »)*

  • spplatTRUE : Scientific name of the species without taking species groups into account

  • sppengTRUE : English vernacular name of the species without taking species groups into account

  • Date : Date the photo was added to the dataset (the year correspond to the year the photo was took)

  • Campaign : Survey during which the photo was taken

  • Area : Geographical area (ICES or not) where the scientific survey occurred (Caribbean sea = Caribbean waters area, IVb-c = ICES area for the IBTS campaign, NA = unknown area, VIId = ICES area for NourManche campaign, VIId/VIIe = ICES area for CGFS campaign, VIIg/VIIj/VIIh/VIIIa-b = ICES area for EVHOE campaign)

  • Commentary : Comments about the photo.

CAUTION : When using this database, please make sure to modify the link to the photos in the “Link” column with the link where you downloaded the Photo_MATURITY.zip file, and to check if it works by clicking it.

*_n = row number