Matt Watson's Conservation Invention Goes Global

Ten years on from appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman after famously leaping out of a helicopter onto a marlin, Matt Watson is again getting interest around the globe. This time it’s not one of his extreme fishing stunts that's gone viral, it’s for a device he’s invented that could help marine research and revolutionise the sport of spear fishing.

A short video demonstrating how the device works has been released online and in just days it has organically reached 500,000 with over 250,000 views. International spearfishing companies and research organisations from around the world have all ready been in touch wanting to get a hold of the kiwi innovation.

See short Facebook video here to get latest reach and views.

https://www.facebook.com/TheITMFishingShow/videos/402730770467441/

The invention allows spear fishers the freedom to choose whether the fish they shoot is killed for food, or released with a research tag. Fishers using the more traditional hook and line fishing have been tagging and releasing fish for decades, with millions of fish around the world being released with tags. Tagging fish has advanced scientists understanding of the growth and movement of fish that can be used to impose conservation measures and set fisheries limits to protect them.

Tagging free-swimming fish has a greater value to research because the fish has not been hooked and fought. The incredible footage of testing the tagger viewed by hundreds of thousands, shows Watson swimming amongst dozens of marlin and firing tags into them, and the fish remain unbothered. The film then shows it working just as well on inshore fish like snapper and kingfish, and this is where Watson sees a more immediate conservation benefit.

“The research value of this is obvious, but more immediately what it means is spear fishers can spend a day in the water hunting and shoot multiple fish, yet only the ones they need for a meal are killed”.

The key to the spear tagger being widely adopted is that it fits all spear guns, uses all tags used around the world, it is inexpensive and easy to use.

“Spearfishing is already a very selective form of harvesting fish, every fish is picked out and then shot. The trouble is many spear fisher’s get buck-fever and keep pulling the trigger when a fish comes into range, and that's just the hunter gatherer instinct that can be hard to suppress”.

With the tagger, spear fishers can shoot to their hearts content and every fish tagged is another opportunity for science to learn more about that species.

This is not the first bit of innovative marine conservation project Watson has developed. In 2008, he devised a new format for fishing competitions where instead of bringing all fish in to be weighed, a photo of a fish on a measuring mat was all that was needed, allowing the angler the freedom to choose to keep or release the fish. Many tournaments have adopted this system resulting in many more fish being released.

In 2010 Matt launched Free Fish Heads, an online service, and now app where fishers can find people to come and collect their unwanted fish heads and frames. Over 60,000 kiwis have registered to use free fish heads and tonnes of unwanted fish has been gratefully received and consumed since the initiative was introduced.

This latest innovation is set to be global and could see a huge reduction in fish being taken by spear fishers, and advance research on growth rates and migration of fish. Watson sees it having an even broader affect, “it’s also about the story capturing people’s hearts and minds, and this will help the attitude shift, from being entitled to take whatever we want, to being grateful to take what we need”.

Matt is currently in discussion with a large international spearfishing company about the manufacture and distribution of the spear tagger, where he wants to see proceeds go towards marine conservation.

“I’m not in the business of selling spear fishing products, I just want to get it out to the world as quickly as possible. I got the patent only so I could stop it getting ripped off and commercialised. If I can’t get the tagger made and distributed cheaply, I’ll make all the information and design open source online”.

© Scoop Media