Every year potentially hundreds of australia's greatest biological mystery the platypus is trapped and drowned in the freshwater crayfish / yabby trap known as an opera house trap.

The use of these traps is banned on public land in the states of Victoria and Tasmania, the same can't be said for the rest of Australia, as well as any privately owned bodies of water in the currently prohibited states.

The platypus spends most of its life either in its burrow or underwater foraging and exploring in its surrounding waterways, as a mammal they need to return to the surface of the water every 30 seconds to take a breath of air. When a platypus sees an opera house trap containing crustaceans it sees a meal, after entering and eating the trapped crustaceans they find themselves trapped and unable to return to the surface for their next breath of air and drown.

The sale of opera house traps supports the drowning of australia's most unique creature and the only mammal known to lay eggs besides four species of echidna, also known as spiny anteaters in some regions. The population of the platypus has dropped from what was once 300,000 to now only a estimated 200,000, if we don't do something soon we will continue to see this number decrease.

Solution

1. Ban the sale of opera house traps nationwide.

2. Ban the use of opera house traps in private waterways.

3. Build public awareness of the dangers to native wildlife from the use of opera house traps and about the use of safe alternatives for trapping the freshwater crustaceans.