At sea testing of the Popeye Fishbox bycatch reduction device onboard the FV Adelaide Pearl for approval in Australia's northern prawn fishery

Tests were conducted to determine if twin trawl nets containing a Turtle Excluder Device (TED) and a Popeye Fishbox caught less bycatch then nets fitted only with a TED. Nets that had the Popeye Fishbox located 70 meshes from the codend draw strings had a 48% reduction in the weight of small bycatch, an 87% reduction in number of sea snakes and a 35% reduction in the number of sharks and rays caught. When the Popeye Fishbox was placed 100 meshes from the codend draw strings, the weight of small bycatch was reduced by 28% and the number of sharks and rays was reduced by 27%. No analysis of sea snake bycatch at this distance was carried out. There was no significant difference in the catch of targeted prawns between nets with and without the Popeye Fishbox.