The U.S. Consulate Toronto, B-Notions, and North of 41, hosted the first ever international Fishackathon from June 5th to 7th, 2015 as a pre-event leading up to World Oceans Day 2015 on June 8th. This hackathon gave coders and hackers in Toronto 48 hours to create applications and tools that address sustainable fishing challenges, including Great Lakes-focused issues such as invasive aquatic species. Following the U.S. Consul General Jim Dickmeyer’s remarks at the opening ceremony, hosts of the eco-adventure documentary series “The Water Brothers,” Alex and Tyler Miffin gave a presentation on the threats to sustainable fishing.
During the next 48 hours, hackers and coders developed applications, which included an app to remotely control underwater drones, hardware to quickly measure the size of fish using red technology, an app tracking the origins of commercial fish for consumers and an app for tracking underwater drones for education/virtual tourism. The winning team members, Willie Kwok and Evelyn Liu, created an application that streamlines the current MMAP Mortality/Injury Reporting Process. The project aims at supporting fisherman and scientists in marine conservation efforts, protecting marine mammals and creating an environment for sustainable fishing. More information about the project is available at: http://challengepost.com/software/lazy-harp-seal-hd1nn
Fishackathon 2015 was held globally in fourteen cities around the world including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Long Beach, Miami, New York City, Chattanooga, Jakarta, London, Santiago, Toronto, and Vancouver. On June 29, 2015, a panel of judges will select a global winner, from the set of finalists selected by each of the host cities, for the Grand Prize – a trip for two to the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain in February 2016. Each host city selected finalist will also be eligible for the “People’s Choice” Award, for a trip for two to “Our Ocean” Conference in Santiago, Chile in October 2015. The winner for the “People’s Choice” Award will be announced on July 10th, 2015.
