Dr. Ed Trippel preparing a barium sulphate gillnet and weak rope for field trials at the St. Andrews Biological Station in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. © Suzanne Taylor (Fisheries and Oceans Canada)

One method to reduce bycatch is to invest in improved technology, such as more selective, “smart” fishing gear that reduces the chance of bycatch. To promote the development of such gear, WWF created the International Smart Gear Competition.

The goal of the International Smart Gear Competition (smartgear.org) is to develop fishing gear and fishing methods that reduce bycatch. The competition is open to anyone – including professional gear manufacturers, backyard inventors, fishers, students, engineers and biologists. The winners receive a cash prize, as well as assistance with making their ideas commercially viable.

Read our online interview with Dr. Ed Trippel, Canadian winner of the 2005 Smart Gear Competition.

The winners of the 2007 Smart Gear Competition have recently been announced. This year’s grand prize was awarded to a team of Rhode Island inventors for “The Eliminator”— a radical new trawl that works by catching haddock, but reduces the accidental netting of other marine species. It takes advantage of the haddock’s natural tendency to swim upwards, not downwards, which is the norm for other fish. Wide use of this device could be of great benefit to badly depleted cod stocks in haddock fisheries. The top winner receives $30,000 along with help from WWF to implement their invention.

This year the competition drew 70 entries from 22 countries, including Canada, Cameroon, Finland, Thailand, Ireland, the United States, New Zealand, Russia, Kenya, Malaysia and many others.

Two other inventors won runner-up prizes of $10,000 each for their inventions to help reduce bycatch. One device reduces deaths in seabirds that are struck by trawling cables while diving for food. The second invention is a device that is designed to reduce the bycatch of juvenile red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery.

Thanks to all the great inventors for submitting their innovative ideas for reducing bycatch.