Scubaism

Tests of the winning design from the 2005 Smartgear competition have raised hopes that the fishing gear could be useful for saving turtles across the Pacific.

The design by Steve Beverly, a fisherman from New Caledonia, involves attaching weights to long-lines so that baited hooks rest deep enough to catch tuna, the targeted species, but not sea turtles and other non-target species. Long-line fishing gear is standard in certain fisheries and consists of baited hooks hanging from a long drifting line that is suspended from buoys resting on the surface of the water.

The tests on Beverly’s design were completed last December as a joint project of the Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, and the University of Hawaii’s Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Science.

The tests showed that Beverly’s design was comparable to conventional methods, raising hopes that it can be widely used throughout the long-line industry without reducing profitability. Researchers concluded that Beverley’s technique “does work and would be practical to incorporate into existing fishing practices in Hawaii’s tuna long-line fleet without jeopardizing the catch rates of bigeye tuna.”

“Steve’s design hits the nail for Smartgear,” said Carter Roberts, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund. “The goal of the competition is to reduce unnecessary deaths of species like sea turtles while protecting the livelihoods of fishermen. This test shows that his design works, and is a real inspiration to fishermen. We want to see other great designers enter the Smartgear competition.”