bye bye bycatch

While studying fisheries, we learned about the problem of bycatch and the wastfulness of it. I just found an article announcing the winners of a contest sponsored by the WWF to design fishing gear that reduces bycatch.

The grand prize winner's modification is meant to eliminate the accidental catching of more than 200,000 loggerheads and 50,000 leatherback turtles that are caught each year by long-line fishing crews. It's really simple: put weights on the main line to sink the hooks lower than 325 ft. Turtles typically dive no deeper than 300 ft. As an added bonus, the target species like tuna are usually found lower than 325'. It's such an obvious solution!

Another winning entry is a combination of glowing ropes and stiffer nets to help protect whales, dolphins and porpoises. Their design would help these marine mammals detect and avoid gill nets. More than 300,000 of these mammals are killed each year.

From the article: The National Fisheries Institute, a U.S. association that represents fishing fleets, fishing processors and restaurants, worked with the WWF on the Smart Gear Competition.

"We certainly support this research," said Stacey Felzenberg, manager of communications and coalitions for NFI.

"It saves the sea animals not meant to be caught, it reduces wasted fish, and time. It is in our economic interest to reduce bycatch as well," she said. She said an important aspect of the competition was that the winning entries had to be reasonable in cost.

Just another example of human ingenuity solving a problem in an economic way.