24/03/2006 - Washington,
US —More than 80 inventors have entered the second
International Smart Gear Competition in the hope
of winning the $25,000 grand prize for the best
new fishing gear that will allow fishermen to target
their intended catch while leaving whales, dolphins,
sea turtles, sharks and other marine life untouched.
"WWF is excited to see that
so many people from different countries around the
world are concerned about the sustainability of
their fishing practices, said Scott Burns, director
of WWF-US’s Marine Programme. “Working together,
we can make fishing ‘smarter’ – better targeting
intended catch while safeguarding endangered marine
wildlife and decreasing waste. The International
Smart Gear Competition is intended to reward and
inspire smarter fishing with smarter gear.”
The first annual Smart Gear Competition
drew over 50 entries from 16 countries. This year,
drew 83 entries from 26 countries on six continents,
including Belgium, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Poland,
Ecuador, Mexico, and New Zealand, Paraguay, and
the United States among others.
Smart Gear encompasses the entire
range of fishing gear from super high tech to the
very simple and rudimentary. From underwater ‘kites’
to acoustical, chemical, and magnetic repellents
to a hook and line design termed ‘the octopus,’
the entries are as diverse as the various bycatch
problems that they are designed to solve.
The next step is for the judges
to award a $25,000 grand prize and two $5,000 runner-up
prizes to the top designs. The judges of the competition
are an elite group of gear technicians, fishermen,
researchers, engineers and fisheries managers from
all over the world and they will be looking for
the most practical, cost-effective methods for reducing
bycatch of any species
Conventional fishing gear does
often not allow users to selectively target their
catch. As a result, non-target fish species, marine
mammals, birds, sea turtles and non-target fish
species are caught and sometimes killed. As much
as one fifth of all animals caught in fishing gear
are thrown away as bycatch. Current estimates show
that between 7 and 20 million tonnes of marine life
that were not meant to be caught are still taken,
either to be discarded or utilized in some way.
This bycatch is the leading threat to many endangered
marine mammals, sea turtles and sea birds around
the world.
Last year, WWF awarded three
new practical solutions to marine bycatch: a system
for keeping longlines away from sea turtles by a
former high-school biology teacher and commercial
fisherman; changes to the chemical properties of
fishing ropes and nets by a North American team;
and modified trawls to reduce bycatch of undersized
shrimp and fish by a team of Indian scientists.
