WWF's International Smart Gear Competition - 2005 Winners

Grand Prize Winner - Deep-Setting Technique for Reducing Longline Bycatch of Sea Turtles

Steve Beverly, fisheries development officer, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), New Caledonia

Mr. Beverly is a longtime fisherman who has worked as a longline tuna fisherman, spiny lobster fisherman, commercial diver and tugboat operator in Hawaii; done exploratory fishing for bottom fish and crayfish in Australia, New Zealand and the Pitcairn Islands; fished as a commercial longline fisherman Fiji and Guam; and was a master fisherman for SPC in New Caledonia. Read more>>

Runner-Up Prize Winner 1 - Altering the Chemical Properties of Nets to Prevent Bycatch of Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises)

Dr. Norm Holy (chemist), Better Gear, LLC, USA Dr. Ed Trippel, research scientist, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canada Don King (fisherman), Homeward Bound, Inc., USA

Norm Holy, a chemist and inventor met fisherman Don King in 1988 when Dr. Holy came up with a degradable nylon that could be used in the ocean on gillnets. He sought the expertise of Don King and together the two tested the ropes in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Read more>>

Runner-Up Prize Winner 2 - Modifying Shrimp Trawls to Prevent Bycatch of Non-Target Species in the Indian Ocean

Dr. Boopendranath, principal scientist, Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, India Dr. Pravin, scientist, Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, India Mr. Gibin Kumar, senior research fellow, Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, India Mr. Sabu, senior research fellow, Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, India

The Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) is an Indian research organization that conducts research on harvest and post-harvest fisheries technology. The team is made up of a group of scientists who have worked together for more than a year on the "bycatch reduction devices for selective shrimp trawling" project for the Central Fisheries Institute. The team was formed in April 2004 with Dr. M.R. Boopendranath as the principal investigator for the project, Dr. P. Pravin as the associate scientist and Mr. T.R. Gibinkumar and Mr. S. Sabu as senior research fellows for the project. Read more>>