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Fishing
Smart Gear – International Competition
Designed to inspire innovative ideas for environmentally-friendly fishing gear, the fourth International Smart Gear Competition was launched on January 27th 2009. The competition is searching for new designs for fishing devices that reduce bycatch, real-world fishing solutions that allow fishermen to fish 'smarter' by better targeting their intended catch while safeguarding the dolphins, sea turtles and other marine life often caught unintentionally.
The competition is open to eligible entrants from any profession, including fishermen, professional gear manufacturers, teachers, students, engineers, scientists and backyard inventors, offering anyone a chance to win. The winner of the WWF International Smart Gear Competition will be decided by a diverse set of judges, including fishermen, researchers, engineers and fisheries managers from all over the world.
Learn more about how to enter and the past winners of the International Smart Gear competition and their inspiring designs
The challenge of bycatch
Fisheries bycatch is the leading threat to many endangered marine mammals, cetaceans, sea turtles, seabirds and certain fish species. Since the development some 50 years ago of cheaper fishing gear and bigger, faster boats, thousands of miles of nets and lines have been set in the world's oceans each day. Modern fishing gear, often invisible to sight and extremely strong, is very efficient at catching the desired fish species - as well as anything else in its path. A staggering amount of marine life is hauled up with the catch, and then usually discarded overboard dead or dying. Read more
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