Three recent Waterloo Engineering alumni have made it onto the James Dyson Award’s international Top 20 shortlist which recognizes innovation by current and recent design engineering students.
Colin Bolt, Benjamin Beazley and Jake Chateauneuf (all BASc ‘23, mechanical and mechatronics engineering) have been shortlisted for their product WhaleSafe, a rope on-demand fishing device that stops whales from getting tangled up and dying in lobster and crab fishing trap ropes.
Lobster and crab fishing traps sit at the bottom of the ocean for days, their locations marked by buoys floating on the surface that are attached to the traps via ropes. Whales get caught up in these ropes and die. The WhaleSafe system sinks to the ocean bed along with the traps and, when activated by an acoustic signal from the returning fishers, releases a buoyant spool which floats to the surface. Location ropes float for mere minutes rather than days, thus reducing the risk to whales.
“Whales are increasingly becoming entangled in fishing gear which has led the Canadian and American federal governments to propose legislation to require fishers to use whale safe gear, starting in 2024” said Chateauneuf who is currently doing his master’s degree at Waterloo in mechanical and mechatronics engineering.
“Most solutions are insufficient and too expensive to be adapted and could end up jeopardizing the livelihoods of fishers in eastern Canada and northeastern USA. We set out to create a design that not only kept whales safe but would not destroy the industry that so many depend on.”
This year’s James Dyson Award winner will be announced on November 15. The winning design team will receive £30,000 to support the next stages of their inventions.
Listen to Jake Chateauneuf on Beyond the Bulletin for more about WhaleSafe.
Read Sustainable innovations shine at the Velocity $5K finals for more about Waterloo’s student-led sustainable innovations.