South Australia has made moves to phase out opera house nets by mid-2023, in a bid to stop the careless drowning of animals in forgotten fishing gear.
The decision to eliminate the style of Yabby pot by June 30 2023 will bring SA in line with other states such as Victoria, which banned the deadly nets in 2018.
Opera house nets are most commonly used to catch crayfish and yabbies, yet are trapping other animals such as platypus, water dragons and rakali (native water rat) drowning them in the process. The trap remains popular amongst recreational fishers at the Murray River.
Currently in South Australia, the nets are regulated with PIRSA stipulating that the nets cannot be over a meter long or have an opening exceeding 7.5cm in diameter.
However, ‘set and forget’ opera house nets mean the traps are often overlooked and left in the water for months at a time. The disregarded nature of these nets means countless animals are trapped and left to die every year.
PETA spokesperson Emily Rice says the organisation welcomes the news of SA’s plan to phase out the harmful traps in a statement last week.
The decision to eliminate these traps comes as South Australia edges towards becoming a National Park City.
Initiatives such as the SA government’s butterfly boosting program and the re-introduction of the River Torrens platypus population have been launched this year in collaboration with Green Adelaide. The government hopes these programs will see Adelaide become a bustling and vibrant nature city.
Despite being banned in five Australian states; the RSPCA reports more than 200,000 opera house nets being purchased every year. Queensland remains one of the last jurisdictions to permit the trap, with wildlife organisations like PETA urging government officials to catch up with the rest of Australia.
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