Austral Fisheries Wraps Up Banana Prawn Season Early in Northern Prawn Fishery

The largest operator in Australia's most valuable prawn fishery has wrapped up banana prawn season a month early.

It was one of the shortest seasons on record for Austral Fisheries, now the biggest player in the Northern Prawn Fishery, due to strong fish stocks and the business hitting its targets.

Austral's Rhys Arangio welcomed the active season in the fishery between Cape York in Queensland and Cape Londonderry in Western Australia.

He said this year the company decided to cap its own catches and work towards the domestic demand to minimise fuel costs and improve efficiency.

The banana prawn season officially runs until mid-June in the Northern Prawn Fishery, but Austral Fisheries made the call to bring its 11-vessel fleet back to shore early after meeting its target numbers.

Mr Arangio said after a series of tough years battling poor catches and challenging environmental and economic conditions, it was a welcome relief.

"Really managing what we wanted to catch and doing it as quickly and as efficiently as possible was our game plan this year.

"Fuel is probably our biggest input cost … we chose to fish really close to Karumba this year, minimising the distances that we had to be steaming to catch that prawn."

Mr Arangio said some vessels from other operators were still harvesting banana prawns in the Northern Prawn Fishery.

Before going into administration this year, A Raptis and Sons ran the largest fleet in the fishery.

Mr Arangio said the 13 fewer Raptis and Sons trawlers did not impact the fishery this year, although he said catches could improve as a result in the next few seasons.

"For us at Austral to have a larger share of that Northern Prawn Fishery will likely result in some better performances overall,"

"Less boats in the fishery means that the boats that are left can fish for longer and therefore we're utilising that asset more efficiently. So yes, there probably will be benefits there."

Retail supply and demand

Ocean World Seafood Market owner Peter Adams said prawns from the gulf had started to arrive in his Cairns shop in April.

"There [are] good volumes available."

"They're probably a good value prawn this year, so we hope we can help that supply move on.

"We could supply all year by the look of it."

Mr Adams said consumers could expect consistent prices sitting between $20 and $30 a kilogram.

"The different sizes, the price varies, but yeah, they'll be a product that will hold their value,"

Sustainable stocks

Crispian Ashby, from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, said the strong fish stocks were not exclusive to the Northern Prawn Fishery.

"We are seeing some really good catches of prawns around the country,"

He said favourable climate conditions alongside good management and sustainable practices had contributed to the good catches.

Mr Arangio said a new trawl rig, which was smaller with a larger net opening, had helped Austral reduce its bycatch.

He said it had also made the operation more efficient, which was good for business.

"Trawling has been given a bad rap in recent years."

"So from an industry perspective, seeing the work that's gone into bycatch reduction … especially in the Northern Prawn Fishery in the recent years has been an incredible achievement,"