After being caught by trap, BC spot prawns are frozen at sea and exported to international and domestic markets. Unlike many prawn fisheries throughout the world that deploy bottom trawl gear, the BC prawn fleet uses trap gear.

Trap gear is far more selective, which means there is minimal incidental catch, and has significantly less impact on the marine habitat.

Regulations restrict the number of traps that can be fished by a commercial prawn vessel and vessels are only allowed to hail the traps once per day. In addition, minimum size limits for prawns are in place and large mesh-traps help reduce the capture of undersize prawns, resulting in low mortality.

These measures combine to help ensure the commercial fishery is conducted in a sustainable manner. The result has been the long term conservation of the prawn resource and a fishery that is widely recognized as a sustainable and well-managed.