The depletion of fish stocks costs millions of pounds and threatens 40% of the world’s population who rely on fish to eat.
In the North Sea alone, the European Commission estimates that 50% of fish – often endangered species like cod – are thrown away or “discarded”.
In February 2013, the European Parliament voted for reforms aimed at vastly reducing the needless waste – but innovation is needed to help fishermen reduce discard from their trawlers.
For our science and technology partnership with Yahoo!, The Lab, I met Dan Watson, winner of the prestigious James Dyson award and one of the new generation of inventors making their living trying to solve problems.
Mr Watson has created the SafetyNet, a trawling system that aims to cut down on fishermen’s catch and in turn minimise the discard of juvenile and endangered fish.
I visited him at his studio, an unused school in Battersea, South London. He shares a classroom with an animator and all the adjoining rooms are filled with artists, film-makers and photographers.
Mr Watson showed me his prototype. On an upended classroom table, a section of fishing net is tied from leg to leg.
In the centre is a white plastic ring and he uses some clever gadgetry to tense the net – imitating the pressure the net would undergo deep in the sea.
The white ring, made of highly durable cast nylon, stays in place.
Current fishing nets fail because when the net is being towed, the flow of water stretches the meshes, closing them and not allowing the juvenile fish to escape.
Mr Watson’s reinforcing ring aims to keep the meshes fully open, allowing the smaller fish to escape while retaining the larger, marketable fish like haddock and whiting.
He has identified another problem – that fish often can’t see the netting so don’t know they are trapped. He has inserted LED lights powered by water flow into the ring, offering a highly visible exit.
Marine Conservation Society fisheries officer Sam Stone said the invention could be a major step in the right direction.
He said: “The SafetyNet won’t solve our fisheries problem, but it provides a great example of what can be achieved, or potentially be achieved, if there is significant investment in innovation experimenting with fishing nets.”
2013 BSkyB