NEW ORLEANS, La. — April 18, 2014 — One way to get anglers and commercial fisherman to use devices to save sea turtles, dolphins and off-limit fish is to have them help design and test those devices, scientists told turtle scientists and conservationists — members of the International Sea Turtle Society.
Mike Osmond of the World Wildlife Fund described the International Smart Gear Competition contest to create gear for reducing bycatch — anything a commercial boat or angler isn't trying to catch. There's a $30,000 grand prize, two $10,000 prizes and two $7,500 prizes. This year's deadline for entries is Aug. 31, he said.
The presentation was in a state where hundreds of shrimp boats once barricaded ports over a federal rule requiring them to add turtle escape hatches to their trawls and where many shrimpers think scientists invent data in studies concluding that shrimp nets kill tens of thousands of turtles.
Martin Hall, head of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission's tuna-dolphin program, says that over many years he helped convince skippers of 600 tuna boats from nine countries to voluntarily accept hooks designed to avoid catching dolphins.