Collapse Of Prawn Boom In Australia

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31989, 16 May 1969, Page 11

Collapse Of Prawn Boom In Australia

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) SYDNEY, May 15. Where have all the prawns gone? That is the question anxious fishermen in the Gulf of Carpenteria, in the far north of Australia, are asking one another after a dismal opening to the prawn season.

The bonanza of last year is rapidly souring to a major collapse.

In the March-December season of last year, boats were hauling in great harvests of the succulent banana prawns, and such fantastic catches were reported from newlydiscovered grounds that men and boats headed north in what was tantamount to a stampede.

Daily catches of 60001 b were not uncommon, and it seemed that a man needed only a boat and a net to make a small fortune. Established fishing companies rushed through plans to establish more shore-based processing plants to handle what was confidently predicted would be a bumper crop this year; and at the

beginning of the season 100 trawlers were reported in the area—twice the number working the 10,000 square miles of grounds last year. But the prawns have failed to appear in anything like the expected numbers. “The gulf prawn industry is in a desperate position,” said an exectuive of one processing company. “Of the 15 boats we have, only three or four are taking anything like good catches.” Another company reports: “There are simply no prawns for the boats to work on.”

Experienced trawlermen blame over-fishing for the scarcity, and accuse the Federal and Queensland Governments of not regulating the number of boats in the area.