Japan’s Kazuhiro Yamazaki won the WWF 2011 International Smart Gear Competition with his Yamazaki Double-Weight Branchline.
About the competition
WWF's International Smart Gear Competition, first held in 2005, brings together the fishing industry, research institutes, universities, and government, to inspire and reward practical, innovative fishing gear designs that reduce bycatch - the accidental catch and related deaths of sea turtles, birds, marine mammals, cetaceans and non-target fish species in fishing gear such as longlines and nets.
This most pressing threat to marine life requires a wide-ranging, multidisciplinary response, and WWF believes the Smart Gear competition will help catalyse that response by encouraging creative thinkers everywhere to share their ideas. Applicants are asked to submit their ideas for modified fishing gears and procedures that increase selectivity for target fish species and reduce bycatch for other species. The competition is open to eligible entrants from any background, and entrants have included gear technologists, fishermen, engineers, chemists, and inventors.
