Cefas scientist joins panel to save wildlife

Dr. Andrew Revill, Fisheries Technologist at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas), has been invited to join a distinguished panel of judges for the International ‘Smart Gear’ Competition. Andy is joining an unprecedented coalition of fishermen, scientists and conservation groups looking for fishing gear designs that reduce wildlife deaths.

For years Andy has been working on Defra-funded projects looking at the impacts of beam trawlers on marine life. His particular interest has been the technical modification of fishing gear. Andy’s work is well known to the World Wide Fund (WWF), sponsors of the competition, and they contacted him to be on their international panel of judges.

Andy says: “The input from fishermen is very valuable. Often they come up with the best ideas for reducing discards and the environmental impacts of the their trade.”

The competition seeks innovative fishing gear that reduces bycatch – the accidental deaths of marine mammals, birds, sea turtles and non-target fish species. Conventional fishing gear often doesn't allow users to selectively target their catch. Smart Gear competitors are asked to develop fishing gears or methods that reduce bycatch in ways that still allow fishermen to fish profitably.

T here is a grand prize of $25,000 for the design judged to be the most practical, cost-effective method for reducing bycatch of any species. The winning entry will receive funding to take the design from the drawing-board stage to prototype development, testing, and initial manufacture. There are also two runner-up prizes of $5,000.

Karen Baragona, Deputy Director of the WWF’s Species Conservation programme said: "Since WWF launched the competition in May, the Smart Gear website has been visited by people in 88 countries and read in 6 languages, and our judges now represent 5 countries."

Fact file

There are three categories of gear that aims to reduce bycatch: sea turtle, cetacean, and any other non-target species.
The judging panel includes representatives from the New Zealand seafood industry, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, American research centres, World Wildlife Fund, the National [US] Fisheries Institute, the American Fisheries Society, the Fisheries Conservation Foundation, the Marine Wildlife Bycatch Consortium, the Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources at Memorial University of Newfoundland, the UN National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as Dr Revill from Cefas.
The competition is open to anyone and entries will be accepted until 31 December. Final judging will take place at a two-day workshop in Washington DC in spring 2005.
There are have been thousands of hits on the Smart Gear website and the WWF are understandably pleased at the response to this first-ever competition.
Further information is available at www.smartgear.org