Challenges 2023 - KUL11 "Gotta Catch 'Em All!": Capturing commercial crab landing, biodiversity, and conservation data in peninsular Malaysia via a citizen-based game model

Challenges Description:

Crab fishery is an important economic activity that supports the livelihood of coastal communities in Malaysia. There are several commercially important crab species that are highly sought after, both in the national and international markets, including mud crabs and blue swimming crabs. However, data on the types of species, their landings, sizes, and locations are almost non-existence, and this hampers the fishery management and conservation efforts of commercial crabs in peninsular Malaysia.

As we believe in the inclusion of all levels of society into safeguarding our natural resources, and with the current technology readiness of all members of the society – from kids to older adults, the challenge will be to develop an interactive game that would allow users to report the findings of the edible crabs they bought or found in the wet markets, along with essential data that would contribute to the conservation and future fishery management of these valuable natural resources in Malaysian waters.

The availability of these data can be used to estimate size at maturity, seasonal abundance, and ultimately inform policy for the establishment of fishery management measures such as the establishment of minimum landing size for commercial crab species in Malaysia.

What the challenge owner would like to develop over 48h

• Create a game

Which skills the challenge owner is looking for

• IT developer, marine biologist, data analyst, graphic designer, game developer, specialist in citizen science