An Australian app that teaches anglers how to humanely dispatch their catch has just had its biggest rework since it first launched in 2013, expanding to more than 200 fish and shark species and rebuilding the database around quicker x-ray-style brain overlays.
The Ikijime Tool was originally created by fish biologist Dr Ben Diggles and aimed at filling a gap that no field guide had ever properly filled in Australia: where on each species the brain actually sits. Hitting the brain accurately is the entire premise of ikijime, a Japanese dispatch method long credited by chefs and commercial fishers with delivering markedly better-quality flesh than fish that die slowly on ice.
"Ikijime is a method of brain destruction scientifically proven to minimise stress for the fish while also maximising its eating qualities," Dr Diggles explained.
The 2026 update overhauls the underlying code rather than just adding more entries. Backend systems have been rebuilt from scratch, the search function has been optimised against a faster lookup database, and the species library has grown well past the 200 mark, covering fish and shark species across both inshore and offshore Australian waters.
The core feature remains the x-ray overlay. Anglers select a species, view a translucent skeletal diagram superimposed on the fish's external profile, and use the marked spike point to drive an ikijime tool through the brain.
For recreational anglers, the practical case is twofold. The fish die almost instantly, which addresses the welfare argument that has been increasingly prominent in Australian fisheries policy debates. And, as Dr Diggles points out, the eating quality of the resulting fillets is meaningfully better, particularly for line-caught species that would otherwise spend a long stress period in an ice slurry before going still.
The pricing model has also been reworked. Initial download is free, but users hit a paywall after ten database searches and are prompted to purchase. Anglers who already paid for the previous version of the app can upgrade to the 2026 build at no cost, the developers say. The app is available on both Google Play and the App Store.
Development costs of this scale are unusual in fish welfare technology. The Ikijime Tool's 2026 update was funded by the Ocean Health Foundation, a non-profit that has previously backed Australian fisheries science work and angler education projects.
For a recreational fishing public increasingly conscious of how individual fish are killed, the timing matters. Several Australian fisheries authorities and chef groups have spent the past two years pushing for ikijime to become a default expectation rather than a specialist technique, and the new build of the app removes most of the technical barriers to anglers actually doing it correctly in the field.
With the species count now well above 200 and the database structured to handle further additions without slowing search, the 2026 release positions the Ikijime Tool as both an angler reference and a teaching tool for charter operators, fishing clubs and tournament fields who want their members on the same humane dispatch standard.