Hundreds of young designers, developers, and subject matter experts from across Canada joined thousands of participants in more than 35 international cities on February 10-11, 2018 to tackle endemic challenges facing our world’s oceans and fisheries.

First organized by the Department of State in 2014, the 2018 Fishackathon was produced by the Toronto-based nonprofit organization HackerNest to inspire the creation of digital solutions to address sustainable fisheries challenges. Over the course of 28 hours, teams from universities and coding schools produced innovative projects which they presented to a panel of industry-expert judges.

Stable Hacks  from Seneca College presented a project that provides access to real-time marketplace data via Short Message Service (SMS);

UBC’s Grow Fish team developed an app that allows fish feed producers to assess trade-offs between alternative feed ingredients in regards to environmental indicators, costs, and nutritional composition;

Fish Food Science from Kitchener-Waterloo built an app to put “fish feed price analysis at your fingertips;” and,

Catching-Up, the winning team from Halifax, built a product that directly connects small-scale developing-world fishers to export markets to generate higher profits to fishers who need them most.

The four winners will advance to the global finals, which will be judged by a panel of partners that include AWS, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Maverick1000 as well as venture capitalists and representatives of the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority of Ireland.

The global prize includes scholarships to Founder Institute, $25,000 in credits and social media/blog promotion from AWS, coaching, and mentoring.

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