A new device known as the ‘fishbox’ has shown promising results in reducing the catch of unwanted fish from prawn trawl nets in one of Australia’s largest prawn trawl fisheries.
Developed by netmaker Robert ‘Popeye’ Bennett, the device acts as an escape hatch allowing unwanted fish and other species such as sea snakes to escape the trawl net.
Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) Managing Director, Richard McLoughlin, said that fishers in the Northern Prawn Fishery will now be able to use the fishbox device after trials showed encouraging results in the reduction of bycatch such as small fish species and sea snakes.
“In certain conditions the fishbox resulted in a 48% reduction of the amount of small fish and an 85% reduction in sea snakes caught compared to no escape device. Capture of small sharks and stingrays was also reduced by almost 11%. Large sharks and rays are already excluded from the prawn trawl by existing mandatory TEDs or Turtle Excluder Devices.
“The trial also found that the device was best suited to the method used when targeting tiger prawns.
“Following these results the Northern Prawn Management Advisory Committee has endorsed the use of the fishbox in the fishery. AFMA is now encouraging license holders in the NPF to install the device for use during the next tiger prawn season.
“Further analyses of the fishbox will be conducted to fine tune the effectiveness of the device,” said Mr McLoughlin.
The fishbox trial was conducted as part of AFMA’s move towards eco system based fisheries management and was funded by the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust.
The Northern Prawn Fishery is Australia’s most valuable Commonwealth fishery supplying mainly banana and tiger prawns to overseas and domestic markets. Operators in the fishery are based out of ports in Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland.
