A 30,000 dollar first prize will lure fishers and environmentalists alike to the fourth annual WWF Smart Gear Competition.
The mail box for entries, preferably electronic, will be closed on June 30.
The competition, designed to inspire innovative ideas for fishing devices that reduce bycatch, is open to entrants from any profession, “including fishermen, professional gear manufacturers, teachers, students, engineers, scientists and backyard inventors”, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) announced.
It was won last year by a team of Rhode Island, USA, scientists and net makers for a method of capturing haddock with very little bycatches of other species, not the least cod. Their victorious device – aptly named “The Eliminator” – works by taking advantage of the haddock’s tendency to swim upward instead of downward, which is the tendency of other fish. The bottom part of “The Eliminator” lets non-haddock escape the net. The Grand Prize winners beat out more than 70 other contenders from 22 countries.
Two 10,000 dollar runner-up prizes will be awarded, as well as a special 7,500 dollar prize aimed at solutions for the particularly serious bycatch problems along the East African coast.
The runner-up awards last year were given to an Argentinean marine biologist for an invention saving the lives of seabirds, and a University of Mississippi professor for a device designed to reduce the bycatch of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery.