VodaTrak: Field Data Collection Software That Works the Way You Do 

You Don’t Need a Measuring Board to Take Advantage of VodaTrak 

If you’ve seen VodaTrak in action, chances are you’ve seen it paired with our Veloce Electronic Measuring Board. 

It’s a great combination. 

Measure a fish on the Veloce, and the length can be transferred directly into VodaTrak—helping eliminate handwritten measurements and reducing repetitive data entry. 

But here’s something we want more researchers to know: 

You don’t need a Veloce Measuring Board to use VodaTrak. 

VodaTrak is also a powerful standalone data collection tool designed to make recording, organizing and exporting field data easier. 

Whether you’re counting fish, conducting a biological survey, recording species, documenting sampling locations or simply trying to eliminate stacks of wet field notebooks, VodaTrak gives you a customizable way to keep everything together. 

Your Study. Your Data Fields. 

Every research project is different. 

That’s why we didn’t want to build software that forces researchers to collect data according to our idea of what a study should look like. 

Instead, VodaTrak allows you to customize your data fields to match the needs of your study. 

Maybe you need to record: 

• Species 

• Fish count 

• Length 

• Weight 

• PIT tag number 

• Sample location 

• Site number 

• Date 

• Time 

• Sex 

• Life stage 

• Capture method 

• Condition 

• Treatment group 

• Notes 

Or maybe you don’t need any of those. 

That’s the point. 

Set up the fields that matter to your project and leave out the ones that don’t. 

Your data collection system should adapt to your research—not the other way around. 

Turn Your Tablet Into a Digital Field Notebook 

Think of VodaTrak as a customizable digital field notebook. 

Instead of carrying paper datasheets into the field and then returning to the office to manually enter everything into a spreadsheet, you can enter information directly into VodaTrak as you work. 

For example, imagine you’re conducting a fish population survey. 

Your VodaTrak file could be configured to record: 

Species | Count | Length | Weight | Location | Notes 

If you’re simply conducting species counts, your setup could be even simpler: 

Species | Count | Site 

For a more detailed fisheries study, you might want: 

Species | PIT Tag ID | Length | Weight | Sex | Life Stage | Location | Capture Method | Notes 

The possibilities depend on what you need to collect. 

Fish Counts Made Simple 

Not every fisheries project involves individually tagging or measuring every fish. 

Sometimes the most important question is simply: 

How many did we find? 

VodaTrak can be configured for straightforward fish counts and sampling data, allowing crews to record observations in one organized digital file. 

If you’re sampling multiple species, your customized fields can help keep those observations organized throughout the day. 

That can make VodaTrak useful for applications such as: 

• Fish population surveys 

• Electrofishing surveys 

• Gill net sampling 

• Screw trap sampling 

• Hatchery operations 

• Species counts 

• Mark-recapture studies 

• PIT tag studies 

• Biological monitoring 

• Environmental field surveys 

And because the fields are customizable, VodaTrak isn’t limited to one type of fisheries project. 

Collect the Data Once 

One of the biggest frustrations with traditional field data collection is entering the same information twice. 

First, someone writes it on a field sheet. 

Then somebody has to sit at a computer and enter that information into a spreadsheet. 

That takes time—and every additional transcription creates another opportunity for an error. 

Was that handwritten number 1,268 or 1,288? 

Was that fish 182 mm or 192 mm? 

Did every row from the field sheet make it into the spreadsheet? 

Digital field data collection can help reduce that unnecessary second step. 

Enter the information into VodaTrak once, while you’re collecting it. 

Finished Sampling? Export Your Data to Excel. 

This might be our favorite part. 

When your sampling is finished, your data doesn’t have to stay trapped inside proprietary software. 

Export your VodaTrak data into an Excel file. 

Now your organized field data is ready for the next stage of your workflow. 

Open it in Excel. 

Review it. 

Sort it. 

Filter it. 

Share it with colleagues. 

Incorporate it into your existing database or analysis workflow. 

Instead of spending hours transferring handwritten field notes into a spreadsheet, your data is already digital and ready to use. 

Add the Veloce Measuring Board When You Need It 

Of course, when your study involves collecting fish lengths, pairing VodaTrak with the Voda IQ Veloce Electronic Measuring Board takes the system to another level. 

Rather than manually reading a measurement and entering it into your data, the Veloce can provide the measurement directly to your data collection workflow. 

That can create a simple process: 

Measure → Record → Next Fish 

For high-volume sampling projects where crews may handle hundreds or thousands of fish, reducing even a few seconds of manual data entry per fish can make a significant difference. 

And just as importantly, it can help reduce transcription errors. 

Build the Data Collection System Your Project Needs 

VodaTrak can also be part of a larger Voda IQ field-data system. 

Depending on your project, you may want to incorporate additional tools for collecting information such as fish length, weight, PIT tag identification or barcode information. 

The goal isn’t to add technology simply for the sake of technology. 

The goal is to make data collection faster, easier and more organized. 

Start with VodaTrak as a standalone field-data tool. 

Add a Veloce Measuring Board when you need automated length measurements. 

Add compatible peripherals when your research requires additional information. 

Your data collection setup can grow with the needs of your project. 

You Don’t Need PIT Tags, Either 

Because Voda IQ is known for PIT tag technology, it’s easy to assume that VodaTrak must be designed exclusively for PIT tag studies. 

It isn’t. 

You don’t need to use PIT tags to use VodaTrak. 

You don’t even need to be tagging fish. 

If you need a convenient way to collect structured information in the field, VodaTrak may be able to simplify your workflow. 

That could be something as basic as: 

Species + Count + Location 

Or something considerably more detailed involving dozens of study-specific fields. 

It’s entirely dependent on your project. 

Less Paper. Less Re-Entry. Better Organized Data. 

At the end of a long sampling day, the last thing most field crews want to think about is going back to the office and entering pages of handwritten information into a computer. 

That’s exactly the type of workflow we want VodaTrak to help simplify. 

Customize your fields. 

Collect your data. 

Keep everything together. 

Export directly to Excel. 

And when you need more capability, pair VodaTrak with the Veloce Measuring Board and other Voda IQ equipment to create a more complete digital field-data collection system. 

Whether you’re measuring 2,000 fish or simply counting species at several sampling locations, the idea behind VodaTrak is the same: 

Your study determines the data you collect. Your software should make collecting it easier. 

Ready to Simplify Your Field Data Collection? 

Contact Voda IQ to learn more about using VodaTrak as standalone data collection software or pairing it with the Veloce Electronic Measuring Board for a more integrated fisheries data collection system. 

Tell us what information you need to collect, and we’ll help you determine how VodaTrak can fit into your field workflow.