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ABC Rural

Northern tiger prawns the preferred catch for east coast fish farms

By Lisa Herbert
A large tiger prawn, about the length of a forearm is held in a man's hand.
Tiger prawns from the northern prawn fishery are in demand from east coast prawn farms(ABC Rural: Lisa Herbert)
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Northern tiger prawns are hot in demand by east coast fish farms.

Tiger prawns are being caught in northern waters and flown to east coast hatcheries
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Brood stock caught in the northern fishery have a reputation for doing better in a farmed environment and for being better breeders than their eastern cousins.


Fish farmer Wayne Di Bartolo makes the trip to Darwin from North Queensland several times a year to pack freshly-caught tiger prawns in readiness for their transfer to a Townsville hatchery.

He said his employer, Pacific Reef Fisheries, produces more than 1,000 tonne of prawns for the Australian market each year.

He is happy with the quality of the 240 female tiger prawns caught by contractors in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, north of the Western Australia/Northern Territory border.

"The farm needs to produce more than 100 million larvae to stock our farms so we need these guys to perform to their best," Mr Di Bartolo said.

"These females, and the males, look exceptionally well. They don't look stressed at all."

Mr Di Bartolo said the expense of chartering a trawler for more than a week, flying staff to Darwin to pack the prawns, and then air-freighting the animals to the east coast was worthwhile.

"Our industry is a valuable one [and] this is just a small portion of our costs," he said.

"These guys are a bigger, stronger, healthier animal. They grow quicker than our east coast animals [and] that's why we like using them.

"Normally, one female can produce anywhere from a couple of hundred to 500,000 babies per spawning, and we'll get two or three spawnings per animal."

Wayne Di Bartolo pumps oxygen from a cylinder into a bag of water and tiger prawns
Wayne Di Bartolo adds oxygen to a bag containing three tiger prawns and sea water.(ABC Rural: Lisa Herbert)

The prawns are placed into large plastic bags filled with water and oxygen before being put into polystyrene boxes in readiness for the plane trip to the east coast.

Fisherman Luke McGraw spent eight days on the prawn trawler in deep Western Australian waters to catch Mr Di Bartolo's precious cargo of 240 females and 200 males.

Once caught, the prawns are kept in aerated tanks until the boat returns to port.

Mr McGraw said finding and catching the crustaceans "isn't easy".

"It's a bit of trial and error; a lot of it comes from old marks from old fishermen, old knowledge," he said.