Yabby Trap Round-Up

29 February 2024

Hawkesbury City Council is trialling being a drop off point – a Trap Drop Spot – for old and unwanted Opera House yabby traps which will be sent to Ozfish as part of the Yabby Trap Round-Up program. The program will recycle the Opera House yabby traps into useful products for fishers, with the proceeds funding habitat restoration.

During the trial period, you can drop off your Opera House yabby traps at the Customer Experience counter at Council’s Administration Building, 366 George Street, Windsor. In return for your trap, you’ll get a new Australian made Oar-Gee lure as a thank you!

The trial is scheduled to run during March 2024. After March 2024, please call Council on 4560 4444 prior to dropping off any traps.

Opera House yabby traps are illegal in NSW and no longer permitted to be used as they have been implicated in the drowning of air breathing fauna such as platypus, turtles, and water rats.

For more information on the Yabby Trap Round-Up program please visit https://ozfish.org.au/projects/yabby-trap-round-up

The project within NSW is only for a limited time, however, OzFish will continue to collect nets as part of its Tackle Loop program. More information here at https://ozfish.org.au/projects/tackle-loop

The Yabby Trap Round-Up program is an initiative of OceanEarth Foundation, through its GhostNets program, in collaboration with OzFish Unlimited. It is also supported by BCF – Boating, Camping, Fishing.

Project partners also include the NSW Department of Primary Industries and RecFish SA.