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A $US 30 000 grand prize (with two US$ 10 000-runner-up prizes) is on offer for the best new fishing equipment designed to reduce bycatch in the fourth International Smart Gear Competition, offered by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature, www.wwf.org).

The Smart Gear Competition seeks real-world fishing solutions that allow fishers to fish 'smarter', better targeting their intended catch while safeguarding birds, dolphins, sea turtles and other marine life from being unintentionally caught The 2007 grand prize went to a team of US inventors from Rhode Island, USA, who designed fishing gear to target species of bottom fish.

One of the 2007 runner-up prize winners was Diego Gonzalez Zevallos, Centro Nacional Patagónico, Argentina, who studied the accidental death of seabirds struck by trawling cables. His device, a modified plastic traffic cone attached to the warp cables, has been successfully tested (see http://www.smartgear.org/smartgear_winners/smartgear_winner_2007/smartgear_winner_2007runner1/).

Information on a 2006 runner-up winner who invented the “Flying Bottlebrush”, also designed to reduce seabird mortality during trawling, can be found at http://www.smartgear.org/smartgear_winners/smartgear_winner_2006/smartgear_winner_2006runner/. 

The competition is open to eligible entrants from any profession, including fishers, professional gear manufacturers, teachers, students, engineers, scientists and backyard inventors. The winner of the Smart Gear Competition will be decided by a diverse set of judges, including fishers, researchers, engineers and fisheries managers from all over the world.  Entries will be judged on innovation, practicality, cost-effectiveness, their ability to reduce bycatch of any species and the overall contribution the invention makes to conservation.

The Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation, the SeaWorld Busch Gardens Foundation and the Lemelson Foundation are supporting this year's competition.  The competition begins on 27 January 2009 and ends on 30 June 2009.  For more information, official competition rules and instructions on how to enter visit www.smartgear.org.