Project commenced:
The commercial fishing industry is a complex system, and one issue that can hamper the success of fishing companies is the inadvertent capture of fish that are not target species. Under the Quota Management System, if a company has limited quota for a non target-species then fishing for target species has to stop once the limited quota of a non-target species has been met. The Waikawa Fishing Company proposed to address the bycatch issue by designing and creating fish traps, from mātauranga Māori, that target individual species. In collaboration with Cawthron Institute, the economic feasibility of these fish traps were assessed and found to have potential to reduce bycatch.