The crayfish sea sausage innovation filling fishing bins
Will Johnston, The Post, 5 April 2025
A new crayfish “sausage” could give Taranaki’s commercial fishing crews a new way to successfully catch a haul of fish without endangering Maaui dolphins.
A group of New Plymouth commercial fishermen have worked with Massey University to develop a “dolphin-friendly” bait made from crayfish waste for their long-lines.
Squeezed into a sausage-like shape, the bait is so far proving a game changer in catching rig sharks, a popular fish for fish and chips both in New Zealand and Australia.
“The rig love the sausage bait,” fisherman Rob Ansley said. “Nothing works as reliably as this. It’s amazing to see it in action.
“And the best thing is these sausages are made from what would otherwise be waste product.”
Rig were typically caught using set-nets in Taranaki, but that form of fishing was banned along the Taranaki coast by the Department of Conservation (DOC).
Restrictions on set-nets were first introduced in 2012, then expanded in 2020 to protect the endangered Maaui dolphin.
Keith Mawson of Egmont Seafoods, who has been a frustrated voice about the impacts of the restrictions, said the area’s whole commercial fishery for rig was at risk after the restrictions were put in place.
“We needed to change to long-line fishing; however, getting rig to take a hook isn’t easy,” he said.
“We knew that rig love crayfish but getting bait made from crayfish waste products to stay on a hook was proving next to impossible.”
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