dbfishR: An R package for fish and water quality data access and entry

The dbfishR package is designed to access data collected as part of Pennsylvania's Unassessed Waters Initiative, a state-wide program to sample fish communities and water quality in headwater streams throughout the state, currently including 1491 stream sites collected between 2010-2025. With the package database, we have also released a robust database template to both facilitate collaboration and future data contributions through data standardization for in-stream collection of data related to water quality; discharge; site metadata, and fish counts, lengths, and weights. The database includes structured forms with value limits for data entry to support efficiency, accessibility, and quality control. The package is structured for tidy import from the relational database structure for ease of data analysis and comparison with external data. Because of these data and query structures, the package and database can be expanded to include data from any aquatic research involving substrate, water quality, or fish and amphibians. We present the package and database as readily available access to the existing dataset while offering opportunity for future contribution, specifically from the eastern United States, as well as adaptability for use in data curation and access for watersheds globally.