Commercial, traditional, and recreational fisheries operate in the Torres Strait region in Northern Australia and provide a range of important cultural, social, economic, health and wellbeing benefits. Management information exists for commercial fisheries sectors, but limited data exists for the non-commercial sectors. Current estimates of traditional and recreational catches are either out of date or unknown for commercially important species of Spanish Mackerel, Coral Trout and Tropical Rock Lobster, but also for many other culturally important food species that communities rely on. Torres Strait Islanders have expressed concern for their traditional fisheries and the need to protect them to ensure food security and livelihoods. In this presentation we present the results of an research project to co-design principles for developing a traditional fishery, app-based monitoring tool and program for the region. The presentation will discuss the community-based approach, present the outputs from 15 communities/islands workshops to co-design the monitoring tool, and summarise our review of existing fishing apps, costs and options. We present information on key app design features, principles and best practice approaches for app development and key recommendations to implement the next phase of development and testing of a traditional fishing app in the Torres Strait region.