Scots graduate wins £1,000 design prize

A GLASGOW arts graduate has won a £1,000 UK innovation prize with an invention aimed at saving thousands of young fish from being needlessly killed in trawlers’ nets each year.

Dan Watson, 26, who studied product design and engineering at Glasgow School of Art, is today named the UK winner of the annual James Dyson Award, which is run in 18 countries.

His invention, called the Safetynet, contains tidal-powered rings that act as emergency exits to allow juvenile fish to escape.

The designer, who is based in London, is a keen fisherman and started working on his invention after witnessing numerous baby fish being thrown away by Scots trawlermen because they are too small to sell.