Although the voting and judging period has officially closed you can still "Like" your favorite submissions to show your support. The real winners are our oceans, fisheries, and the communities & people that depend on them for their livelihoods.

Thank you all so much for your hard work and support. We're excited about the continuing developments that are taking place across all of the finalists along with some of the other submissions. We'll keep you updated at Fishackathon.co and stay tuned for the final awards for the 2015 Fishackathon on July 10th.

Featured Problem Statements

Fishackathon is a public-private partnership that aims to capitalize on the expansion of mobile technology use across the developing world to address sustainable fishery challenges. The annual Fishackathon event calls on coders, designers, creatives, architects, product managers, project managers, oceanographers, fishers, ichthyologist, phycologist, algologist, and beach combers from all around the world to come together to create new applications and tools for use on mobile phones, devices, and other end-solutions, which can help fishers work smarter and more safely in sustainable fishing.

You're being asked to develop a solution which addresses one of the four areas which are challenging our fisheries and oceans today:

1. Fisheries Management - drawing on science to find ways to protect fishery resources so sustainable explotation is possible.
2. Conservation - preservation, protection, or restoration of the earth's natural environment, natural ecosystems, vegetation, wildlife, and biodiversity.
3. Aquaculture - the breeding, rearing, and harvesting of aquatic plants and animals in all types of water environments for food or to enhance recreational, commercial, and ecologically-important species and habitats.
4. Traceability - ability to verify the history, location, or application of an item by means of a documented recorded identification. In particular, we are concerned with the fact that any product is manufactured or produced under safe working conditions, by workers that earn a fair wage and use methods that do not damage the environment or people.

To help you with the development of your solution, you can select one of the problem statement as a specific application of your solution. Each problem statement addresses at least one of the categories above.

Featured Problem Statements

The featured problem statements have been qualified for post-Fishackathon engagement by both the submitting party and by our expert panel. While all of the submitted problem statements qualify for the prizes, these have vetted for contunuation beyond the event itself.

15-1: "Track aquaculture feed ingredients from the original source to the harvested product"

15-6: "A tool to provide sourcing information and access to local, sustainable seafood."

15-8: "Mobile version of Marine Mammal Authorization Program Incidental Mortality/Injury Reporting Form"

15-9: "Develop a measuring board (or other system) that could automatically measure and record fish length."

15-12: "Develop an autonomous or remotely controlled Electronic Monitoring vessel specifically to address catch accountability."

15-13: "An app with all Indian Ocean applicable laws, regulations, decrees and any other formats used to combat Illegal, Unreported, & Unregulated (IUU) fishing."

15-14: "An app to trace and determine a catch's origin within the Indian Ocean."

15-19: "Build a model to analyze energy, environmental (water), and economic (E3) data for a minimum of 3 micro-hydro technologies used at aquaculture farms."

15-20: "Build a simple model to analyze the export potential of fish produced at Armenian fish farms."

15-21: "Develop a crowd/community sourced fisheries monitoring and enforcement system."

15-23: "Develop a passive visual fish recognition system for recreational fishers."

Complete Problem Statements

The following is a list of all of the problem statements submitted for the Fishackathon 2015:

15-1: "Track aquaculture feed ingredients from the original source to the harvested product"

15-2: "Monitor Invasive Lionfish (Pterois volitans and Pterois miles) in Western Atlantic and Caribbean"

15-3: "Recording of catch & bycatch in compliance with geographic / regional reporting requirements"

15-4: "App to monitor Aquatic Invasive Species that educates fishers, divers, and swimmers."

15-5: "Monitor fishing vessels' working conditions, in Thailand, including abuse and forced labor"

15-6: "A tool to provide sourcing information and access to local, sustainable seafood."

15-7: "An app that turns fishers, divers, swimmers and pilots into Amateur Ichthyologist"

15-8: "Mobile version of Marine Mammal Authorization Program Incidental Mortality/Injury Reporting Form"

15-9: "Develop a measuring board (or other system) that could automatically measure and record fish length."

15-10: "Fish identification, information, and monitoring app for South African recreational fishers"

15-11: "Design a tool which fishers can use to quickly ascertain the sea level rise, storm surge and flooding risks in their area."

15-12: "Develop an autonomous or remotely controlled Electronic Monitoring vessel specifically to address catch accountability."

15-13: "An app with all Indian Ocean applicable laws, regulations, decrees and any other formats used to combat Illegal, Unreported, & Unregulated (IUU) fishing."

15-14: "An app to trace and determine a catch's origin within the Indian Ocean."

15-15: "Inform fishers of all areas where chemical weapons and ammunition have been dumped in the world's oceans."

15-16: "Develop a solution that supports or goes beyond intensive monitoring and rapid response in combating Asian Carps entering the Great Lakes"

15-17: "Develop a solution which addresses the issue of Aquatic invasive species (AIS) across North America."

15-18: "Develop solutions to address seafood fraud across North America."

15-19: "Build a model to analyze energy, environmental (water), and economic (E3) data for a minimum of 3 micro-hydro technologies used at aquaculture farms."

15-20: "Build a simple model to analyze the export potential of fish produced at Armenian fish farms."

15-21: "Develop a crowd/community sourced fisheries monitoring and enforcement system."

15-22: "Develop a consumer reference application for aquaculture produced seafood."

15-23: "Develop a passive visual fish recognition system for recreational fishers."

15-24: "Create a simplified catch/bycatch data collection system for Sri Lanka."

15-25: "Linking artisanal fisheries to terrestrial animal conservation"

15-26: "Linking fishermen with home ornamental fish hobbyists"

Entry. The start and end times for the Fishackathon will be determined by the individual host cities. All entrants (both physical and virtual)  must be registered with a host city. Entrants may only be registered with one host city, but can make multiple submissions. Each entrant/participant must have an RSVP with the selected host city.

It is highly recommended that each entrant also register with Challenge Post. This gives you full access to all of the problem statements by giving each entrant the chance to ask questions regarding any of the problem statements. The more you know about a problem or challenge the more likely you’ll build a better solution.

Submissions. The Challenge Post submission form for the Fishackathon will be open on 1500 UTC June 5th 2015 and closed on 1159 UTC June 7th 2015.  However, submissions for the Fishackathon must be submitted by the end time of the selected host city (the “Deadline”) for consideration of the prizes. More than one submission per person/team is permitted. To enter the Fishackathon:

• For a submission to be eligible, the submission must be filed electronically to the Fishackathon 2015 ChallengePost site, by the posted end time of the selected host city;
• Each entrant/participant listed on a submission must have an RSVP with the selected host city;
• Submissions containing the new apps must be submitted electronically via Github;
• It is highly recommended that all submissions include a 3 minute video demonstration of the app / or solution;
• Submissions must be entirely the original work of the entrant(s) - whether it is an individual or team;
• Submissions must not contain any advertisement or solicitation;
• Submissions must not contain anything that is or may be construed as: (i) threatening, harassing, degrading or hateful; (ii) defamatory; (iii) fraudulent or tortious; (iv) obscene, indecent or otherwise objectionable; or (v) protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right without the express prior consent of the owner of such right;
• Submissions must not contain any material that would give rise to criminal or civil liability or that encourages conduct that constitutes a criminal offense; and
• Submissions must otherwise comply in all respects with these Rules and the Policies.

Fishackathon.co and their representatives will have no responsibility for, and will have the right to refuse at its sole and absolute discretion, any entries that have been altered, tampered with, misdirected, incomplete, non-conforming, corrupt, lost, late, or ineligible, whether due to Internet or e-mail server failure or otherwise. Proof of transmission of an submission shall not constitute proof of receipt. It is each entrant’s responsibility to keep Fishackathon.co and their representatives informed of any changes to entrant’s contact or other information during the Fishackathon.

• Innovation
  1: Not unique or innovative 2: 3: Provides a better/faster/clearer way to solve the problem 4: Solves a problem that has been overlooked/ignored in the past 5: Addresses the problem at deeper level, making existing solutions/efforts unnecessary-disruptive
• Impact
  1: Not relevant to cat 2: 3: Addresses a cat. relevant prob, diffcult to implement/scale, no plan to move forward 4: Addresses a cat. relevant prob, hard to implement/scale, clear plan to move the proj forward 5: Sustainable lifecycle, easily be scaled
• Interface
  1: Not usable. 2: 3: Usable but it is not intuitive without clear instructions. 4: Usable and clear without instructions. 5: Both intuitive and visually appealing.