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This baby hammerhead was caught in a standard gill net off San Carlos. Its meat is edible, but of limited commercial value.  Photo by Eric Jackson

International Smart Fishing Gear Competition

Magnets may save sharks
by the WWF

Thousands of sharks could be saved from being caught and killed on fishing lines thanks to innovations such as the winning idea emerging from WWF’s International Smart Fishing Gear Competition, the global conservation organization announced on May 11.

Millions of tons of fish each year are wasted as unwanted catch and hundreds of thousands of seabirds, mammals, sea turtles and other marine animals are killed through destructive fishing practices.

This "incidental" catch is called bycatch and is pushing many species towards extinction.

Every year thousands of sharks die after becoming snared on hooks set by commercial fisheries to catch fish such as tuna and swordfish. The problem has pushed some shark species to the brink of extinction, with some populations down by 90 percent.

Michael M. Herrmann, a Research Associate at American organization “Shark Defense,” has come up with a novel idea for addressing this problem. Sharks can detect magnetic fields and he found that placing strong magnets just above the hooks on longlines repels certain shark species. Having won the 2006 Smart Gear Competition, Mr. Herrmann has received approx. €20,000 ($25,000) to further develop and test his winning idea.

“Solutions do exist --- or can be developed --- and there is no excuse for allowing this level of waste in our seas,” said WWF International's Director General James Leape. “Smarter Fishing is critical to ensuring a future for sharks, seabirds and sea turtles. Without urgent and bold legislation to reduce this critical environmental and economic problem, the waste will continue and in the long term, risk putting the fishing industry out of business.”

WWF’s competition to promote innovation and smarter solutions reeled in other promising ideas as well. The two runners up --- a lighter “flexible” grid for trawl nets that may allow certain fish to escape and a flying scarecrow device to scare away birds, frequently a bycatch casualty, and often caught on wires attached to trawl nets --- will also be commended.

The winners of the Smart Gear Competition were chosen by a diverse set of judges, including fishermen, researchers, engineers and fisheries managers from all over the world. The global conservation organization hopes the competition will inspire managers and fishermen across the globe to look at practical solutions to reduce the problem of overfishing and declining health of oceans, which is also endangering food security in poorer countries. The Smart Gear Competition is an opportunity for WWF to find, reward and promote what are very often inexpensive, easy ideas that will be widely embraced by fishermen to improve fishing gears and techniques.

Having won the 2006 Smart Gear Competition, Mr. Herrmann has received approx. €20,000 ($25,000) to further develop and test his winning idea. Two runners up, who will each receive €4,000 ($5,000), also proposed ingenious ideas to reduce the problem of bycatch.

First Runner-Up Prize Winner

Chris Carey of Independent Fisheries Ltd, New Zealand --- Mr. Carey proposed a solution to the problem of birds getting caught on wires attached to trawl nets. Carey attached a rope covered in flailing, brightly colored material to the wire leading from the boat to the net thus making the wire more visible to birds, which keep away from it.

Second Runner-Up Prize Winner

Kristian Zachariasssen of the Faroese Fisheries Laboratory --- Many trawlers already insert filter ‘grids’ into their trawl nets. Fish which are too big to pass through the grid are able to get out of the net through an escape hatch in the front of the grid. However, the flow of water through the net means non-target fish still become caught on the sides of the net in front of the grid. The grids are also often extremely heavy. Zachariasssen made a lighter, flexible grid. Because of the grid’s flexibility, water to flows through the net differently, and fewer fish become entangled in the net in front of the grid.

WWF's International Smart Gear Competition, created in 2004, brings together the fishing industry, research institutes, universities, and government, to inspire and reward practical, innovative fishing gear designs that reduce bycatch.

Bycatch facts:

1. Over 250,000 endangered loggerhead turtles and critically endangered leatherback turtles are caught annually on longlines set for tuna, swordfish, and other fish.

2. 26 species of seabird, including 17 albatross species, are threatened with extinction because of longlining, which kills more than 300,000 seabirds each year.

3. An estimated 89% of hammerhead sharks and 80% of thresher and white sharks have disappeared from the Northeast Atlantic Ocean in the last 18 years, largely due to bycatch.

Also in this section:
Nets with magnets to repel sharks win smart fishing gear contest
This issue's orchid
Gardening season again