Opinion/Review: Different Fish and Game Websites, Northwest Edition
The Many Departments of Fish and Game
Hello and welcome. I talk about fishing quite a bit in my blog and YouTube channel, and I reference Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) quite a bit. Since not all Department of Fish and Game are the same, I thought to do a comparative analysis and review of the Departments of Fish and Game (or equivalent title). With my love of fishing, this will expand to other regions around the US as well.
The sites covered in this one are:
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG): Home Page, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW): Home | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW): Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (myodfw.com)
This blog post will focus on the Great Northwest states of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. The goal of this blog series is to compare/contrast and give a generally opinionated review of each of their sites. I will discuss the following aspects of each site:
** General layout and appearance
** Navigation through the page, namely to locate:
-- Fishing Regulations
-- Publication of Emergency Orders
-- Access to, and details of, data involving lakes and streams
** Storefront
-- Ability to buy permits and tags online
-- Price Cost
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG)
I shall begin with the great state of Alaska. Alaska is home to many different species of fish and even more in different biomes that aren't normally found in the continental US (aka the lower 48). Since I live in Alaska and use this site as a frequent resource when outdoors, this shall be my baseline.
General Layout seems narrow, which is good and bad in a sense. It is good for multi-device use (i'll get to that), but bad for the PC because it seemed condensed. Other than that, everything else from all of the other categories is on big links or buttons on the main page. The front page is more than a landing page, but a dashboard for the rest of the site. The menus at the top are easily understandable. The central highlights, news, and other links are crowded to a degree. There is also a built-in search engin on the page in the upper right.
Navigating to all the important information is easy to a degree. From the main page, there are large buttons to navigate to the Regulations and EOs on the right. The bar at the top remains the same as you navigate through the menus for hunting and various kinds of fishing - as there are multiple types of fishing in Alaska. The top bar is by broad category, which I will outline next.
The biggest hurdle is you have to know what or where you're looking for on a broad scope. The top bar is For example, if I'm trying to navigate to Lake Data, I've got to understand that lakes fall in the broad category of Sport Fishing and not Commercial Fishing or Subsistence Fishing.
After several years of using this site as a resource, a critique/hurdle I could see bogging down the user is the page's attempt to be multi-platform. Compare/contrast point is that the other sites utilize a version of GIS to display map data, however ADFG uses Google's version of GIS to display.
There is also a simple version that displays the lakes and the bathymetric and basic information about the lake.
One great thing, especially when it comes to lake data in particular, is the broad category hurdle is easily overcome once you know what your looking for. For example, clicking on Sport Fishing main page gives me a new page with a bar on the left about EVERYTHING on the subject regarding Sport Fishing info on ADFG. Lake Data, Fish Counts, Hatchery Information, Stocking Locations, etc. is on the left and it breaks down in a tree-like manner.
The Storefront can be a bit tricky. First, I strongly recommend having an account, however there are guest checkout options for certain purchases. Having an account keeps track of previous orders, easy access to renew licensing, and other quick options from an account dashboard.
ADFG Store Page: Store Sections - State of Alaska Department of Fish and Game Online Store
The Store itself, like the rest of the site, is by broad category. You need to know your broad category (which if you've reached the Store's main page it is most likely you do).
Costs are moderate in my opinion (with little XP hunting and fishing in WA, and none in OR or ID), as listed below.
An extended version of the Fee Page for ADFG can be found here: License, Stamp, and Tag Pricing List, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Best thing, unless it's a special circumstance (see below), ALL purchases can be done via the web / your smartphone and you can receive your licenses / tags via email - for those sticky situations that may or may not require a Wildlife Trooper (State Trooper specific to DNR and Wildlife Management)
The biggest upside to me, being a disabled Veteran, is the ADFG supports Vets and offers lifetime Sport Fishing with Salmon Stamp for free. There is also a low income option for fishing and hunting tags. Obviously, all of these options have paperwork requirements and you will need to contact the ADFG office via email/phone for more details.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW)
General Layout is similar to ADFG, however the stark contrast is obvious. There front page is "large and in charge" to put it mildly. I brought the site up on my phone and it gave me the same experience - it did not translate well. However, it also isn't cluttered, with large and clean buttons in the middle of the page (once you scroll - again, size/scaling) that are clear and concise and a bit less broad than ADFG. There is also a bar at the top of the page, but are only links and does not provide a dropdown feature.
After navigating around a bit, I found the top bar buttons and the middle pane buttons ARE THE SAME THAT GO TO THE SAME PAGE. Swipe right/left concept. Drilling down into the buttons, there a categories in an orderly fashion, however there are also links to pages that tend to fall out of scope in my opinion - such as animal science and behavior, conservation, etc.
To breakdown each page, there are the useful links, followed by News and Important Dates on the subject, and below that at the bottom are Conservation News and Tips on the same broad category. This is also how you access the store front for that particular category.
The absolutely biggest critique that I have about navigating the WDFW pages is the amount of drill down I have to do to reach the Emergency Orders, and even then the Orders are too specific to that subject. There is no broad category "here are the Emergency Orders for the whole state" kind of thing. I find that useful to know the region or state's entire EO list to spread the word to my friends and family. As an example to this, I clicked on the Fishing and Shellfish button, which took me to the main fishing page. Only in "Fishing Regulations" page did I find any links to the Emergency Orders.
On another note, I attempted to navigate around the WDFW Lake Databases and gather information about lakes. I used Lake Chelan as a target lake for the navigation test. Under the "Places to Go Fishing" link, I had to choose between "lowland lakes" and "highland lakes" - I imagine this is the difference between fishing IN the Cascades and NOT IN the Cascades. I clicked lowland lakes and it took me to a Database Search Engine where I could type the Lake's name. There are also drop downs to narrow down county and area also. Clicking Lake Chelan link in the pic below took me to a very wordy, and very link heavy, description of the lake with links going to other places. There are no separate bathymetric maps, as it is embedded in the USGS GIS navigational map on the below site.
(Pics above courtesy of WA State Department of Fish and Wildlife)
When attempting to navigate to other aspects of the Fishing section, I encountered quite a bit of drill down through links to find anything. It seems like the page wants me to stay there and click on this, or click on that, with several clicks before I finally get to where I'm going.
The Store is easy to get to.... there are links on almost every page EXCEPT THE MAIN PAGE to "buy a license" or "purchase a permit" and similar buttons throughout the page. However, like the EO, you will need to drill down at least 1-2 levels before these store buttons show up.
The Store requires a login to do any sort of actual purchases, however in the Store Login upper right corner is a "License Information" button that takes you to various FAQs about licensing and such. This is where you will find the very cluttered and complicated Fees Page. The link to the Fees Page is below.
The biggest known difference is that WA does not provide any free anything - every outdoor activity, whether it be hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, etc. - has a fee, and the fee is dependent on how old you are.
WDFW Fee Table: WDFW Wild System - Help & Support (wa.gov)
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
From a general appearance/first glance, it has a similar layout to the WDFW front page. There is a "category bar" that takes you to different subsets, with similar larger, illustrated buttons at the bottom of the main page, and between them are very large banners with text and links about a variety of special topics and the banner's illustration shows semi-pro people flexing with their catch.
Flipping through the categories, again, there are large illustrations/photos of the activity in question - fishing, crabbing/clamming, hunting, etc. with text and links either on the pic or in between. The large pics are my only downside when it comes to general layout and appearance - as it makes you scroll... a lot. This has a "blog" feel to it instead of other formats, referring to links and pages as "articles"
One category that jumped out at me - a blessing and a curse in this scenario - is the Recreational Report section, which gives just that. Again, it has a blog-like feel to it, but it does provide pertinent information and tips/tricks for the activity that looks promising and helpful. If I were to fish in Oregon, I would check this out.
Each of the categories have a collection of important buttons about that category, which take you to said important. Despite the almost monitor-sized banner, one quick swipe or scroll takes you to pertinent info links - I don't have to hunt them. An example is the Fishing page below
However, after cruising through the site for a bit, I could not locate Emergency Orders without using the Search function at the top of the page, which was only a magnifying glass - no embedded search bar. I found something similar, which ODFW calls "Announcements" and "Regulation Updates" which can be found scattered throughout the "Recreational Report" category from the main page.
As far as lake data, ODFW only supplies a basic stocking report and land use report. The concept appears to be a stripped variant of GIS data overlaid on a simplified Google Maps.
I was not able to locate any geolocation, metro, or bathymetric data for stocked or wild waters on the ODFW website. When using the Stocking Location tool, I found very basic information, as depicted below.
Comments
Post a Comment