Saturday the 20 of March saw Australia celebrate its first National Prawn Day which also coincided with the start of prawn season for both farmed and wild caught prawns.
But there is also another reason to celebrate National Prawn Day: according to the Status of Australian Fish Stocks Reports (SAFS), Australian prawns are deemed sustainable based on information regarding each prawn’s biology and catch and effort information that help determine Australian fish stocks (populations).
The report was done on 20 stocks of prawn in which 16 were rated sustainable and the remaining 4 were inconclusive due to a lack of data. Some of the prawns studied include the Banana, Endeavour and Tiger prawns.
The prawn harvests and resultant population are reliant on seasonal conditions and change year to year.
“Importantly, the reports look at stocks, not species, as this is a far more accurate way of assessing sustainability,” said Patrick Hone, managing director of FRDC. “A stock is a population within a species, in a certain area”.
Information released in the SAFS report is regularly updated and since 2018 has been used to track Australia’s progress within the UN Sustainable Development Goal.
The newest SAFS report is set to be released in the next few weeks and will see the Redspot King Prawn being added.