Matt Broadhurst

Biography

Matt Broadhurst’s research has involved developing technologies in various fisheries that mitigate unaccounted fishing mortality (and the associated wastage) and contribute towards the improved control of aquatic resource exploitation by fisheries management. Contained within his research are categories of technical and scientific work, including: assessing the behaviour and physiology of fish and charismatic megafauna (sharks, dolphins and sea turtles) in relation to capture processes; inventing modifications to fishing gears and practices that reduce unwanted impacts; quantifying the mortality and sublethal physiological responses of organisms after interacting with, and then escaping or being discarded from fishing gears, and the broader ecosystem effects to support recommended management changes.

Research

Current research projects include;

• Improving and promoting fish-trawl selectivity in the southern and eastern shark and scale fish fishery and Great Australian Bight trawl sector
• Refining and promoting technologies to reduce bycatch and habitat impacts while increasing fuel efficiencies throughout NSW prawn-trawl fisheries
• Population biology of octopus species in NSW: research to support a developmental octopus trap fishery
• Building knowledge and capacity to increase resilience to climate change
• Estimating the biomass of fish stocks using novel genetic techniques
• Shark management strategy: shark repellent proof of concept.