WorldFish’s AI-powered tool SmartCatch has won the AI for Planet Prize at the 2025 AI for Good Global Summit, hosted by the United Nations in Geneva.
Designed to work in low-resource settings, SmartCatch could help small-scale fishers identify and record their catches using a simple mobile phone photo. The tool uses artificial intelligence to detect species, size and weight, supporting faster and more accurate data collection even in areas without reliable internet.
SmartCatch began as a concept submitted by Dr Hamza Altarturi and colleagues to the Wavemakers Challenge, an internal competition run as part of WorldFish's 50th anniversary celebrations in June 2025. The challenge invited scientists across WorldFish to pitch bold, science-based solutions to a panel of experts. SmartCatch was selected as one of three winners.
This recognition is important as small-scale fisheries are too often overlooked in global policy despite their critical role in supporting nutrition, biodiversity and livelihoods. As highlighted in a recent Nature special collection, these fisheries sustain over 100 million people and contribute vital protein in many low-income countries. Yet they remain chronically underfunded and under-measured. Tools like SmartCatch aim to help change that.
SmartCatch is part of the AI Small Scale Fisheries Sustainability Suite, a set of open-source tools being developed by WorldFish researchers to support better decision-making in small-scale fisheries. SmartCatch and AskData are pilot projects with proof-of-concept prototypes, still under development and not yet deployed. The suite also includes EcoRoute, a route planning tool designed to reduce fuel use and protect overfished reefs.
“SmartCatch is built for communities managing real climate risks with basic phones and no signal. It helps turn guesswork into usable data and gives fishers a way to participate in their own future,” said Dr Hamza Altarturi, lead developer of SmartCatch and postdoctoral fellow at WorldFish.
At the heart of the suite is Peskas, an open-source platform developed by WorldFish to monitor small-scale fisheries. Since being first developed and piloted in Timor-Leste in 2017, Peskas has supported the collection and use of near real-time data across Asia and Africa, helping improve decisions that support sustainable fisheries and coastal communities.
SmartCatch was one of three global finalists selected from more than 330 entries in the AI for Planet category. The AI for Good Summit brings together governments, researchers, civil society and the private sector to explore how AI and digital technologies can accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.