Inspiration

Fishing gear lost or abandoned in oceans has amounted to 640,000.00 tons per year. The damage is made to the environment but not only, communities are really affected and because the problem is not as visible it's hard to get general public awareness.

What it does

We created an app, iFound who connect communities together, with two main symbiotic functionalities iFound Help people to catalog what they found offshore on on land, replying to a couple of questions to narrow down the object, choosing the object in a drop down list, taking a picture with tags ( which can be geotagged if the user allow it ) or all of them. iSearch Access to a map where all the object can be found trough a search engine by tag, category, pictures and tag the object as retrieved. To confirm the retrieval a picture will be asked,and if the gear found is not the one corresponding to the initial search, the user can catalog it in the iFound page

How we built it

We build the wire frame but not the app yet, we was planning to use Ionic and MongoDB for unstructured data storage. The wireframe are accessible through balsamiq ifoundmarineprotection.mybalsamiq.com

Challenges we ran into

Being able to break down such a general problem statement ( problem statement number 5 )

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Being able to work all together and having fun, being able to learn really quickly from peers and mentors who will not have access in normal situation.

What we learned

We learn to use new tools and methodologies and to be respectful of each other even when tired.

What's next for iFound

Getting the app developed Getting hotspot identified Gamyfing the app with profile and get a better user database Getting fisherman more involved push notification to retrieve ghost gear in my area

Future Adaptation

With the available information we receive from the database we will be able to focus on the identification process of ghost fishing gear traced back to its manufacturer. We aim to create incentives around the application to gain this information; by gamifying the app we can increase awareness and promote a culture within the fishing industry resulting in the retrieval & reporting of the ghost gear. Along with the gamification of the app we want to produce a system that will enable organisations such as GreenPeace, CleanUp, SurfRider, sea shepherds to recruit volunteers as well as interested parties who use this app to become more involved in the retrieval and reporting initiative culture we aim to produce.

Our app has the ability to be marketed in such a way that we will be able to achieve an impact on social good and sustainability within the fishing industry, fishing industry suppliers and sea shepherds. Powered by an association (Ghost Gear Retrieval & Reporting Associating) and a monitoring system using blockchain technology all the way to manufacturers we will be able to quantify the amounts of fishing nets being used within the fishing industry companies.

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