Final report
Prawn trawl fisheries are under increasing public and legislative pressure to manage their bycatch sustainably. Although this is now explicit in the fisheries management acts and the new Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, there is little information on which to base sound management decisions. Bycatch cannot be managed without knowing what and how much is caught. This information is critical to determining the impact of trawling on the sustainability of bycatch species and its potential impact on biodiversity. Monitoring bycatch is also important as it provides vital baseline information for assessing changes in the catch rates of bycatch.
This project focused on these issues in the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF), the Torres Strait Prawn Fishery (TSPF) and the Queensland Banana Prawn Fishery.