Search for smart gear to sustain fishing
Cefas scientist Dr Andy Revill has again been invited on to the panel of judges for the second International Smart Gear Competition. The panel includes scientists, fishermen, seafood suppliers, conservationists, policy experts, researchers, and gear technologists from all over the world.
Andy is a specialist in fishing gear technology and an active member of the ICES Fishing Technology and Fish Behaviour Working Group. His principal areas of research include bycatch/discard reduction techniques, technological modifications to fishing gears, and the evolution of abandoned fishing gears.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recently launched their second Smart Gear competition, which awards a $25,000 grand prize and two $5,000 runner-up prizes. The competition aims to reward those fishing gear designs judged to be the most practical and cost-effective methods for reducing the bycatch of any species.
The accidental catch and related deaths of marine mammals, birds, sea turtles and non-target fish species – bycatch – is a serious concern to fishermen and environmentalists. Untargeted fishing is one of the largest threats to healthy marine ecosystems and is related to economic losses for fishermen. There is a real need worldwide for fishermen to fish “smarter”, that is in a more sustainable way. With better catch targeting, fishermen could safeguard dolphins, sea turtles and the other marine life that are routinely caught inadvertently.
The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), of which Cefas is an executive agency, recently addressed this issue in its report Charting a New Course. The report sets out a range of measures to secure a sustainable future for the UK fishing industry. One of its recommendations is the reduction of bycatch, and addressing the issue of untargeted fish being discarded dead back into the sea. Cefas is working hard to address this recommendation and undertakes a range of contracts to support it.
The world’s leading experts in the fisheries arena critically judge the WWF’s Smart Gear competition. Details of last year’s grand prizewinner and how his idea was promoted are on the Smart Gear website, as are the rules of the competition and entry instructions. The final entry deadline for the competition is 15 March 2006.
For further details about Andy Revill’s latest work, see the report on the Swedish grid trials (PDF, 0.7MB), undertaken in the English nephrops fishery and done in association with Seafish.
Photo: A typical catch?: More than 25% of what is caught in the course of fishing is discarded over the sides of fishing boats, dead or dying (source: WWF)
