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Eastern king prawn Melicertus plebejus
Illustration © R. Swainston www.anima.net.au |
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| Target species |
Eastern king prawns Melicertus plebejus |
Status & trend |
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Catch of eastern king prawns.
Data extracted from http://chrisweb.dpi.qld.gov.au 30 June 2004 with permission from Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries. |
Since 1996, there has been a 6 per cent increase in the proportion of total fishing effort directed toward eastern king prawns in the East Coast Trawl Fishery.
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| Effort in GBRWHA in 2003 |
Tonnes: 1,176
Boats: 199
Days: 8,698
Data extracted from http://chrisweb.dpi.qld.gov.au 30 June 2004 with permission from Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
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| GVP in GBRWHA in 2003 |
$14.1m
Data extracted from http://chrisweb.dpi.qld.gov.au 30 June 2004 with permission from Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
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| Location of fishing |
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Eastern king prawns are caught in the Southern trawl (22°S to 28°S, and east and north of the Swains 152.5°E) and in Moreton Bay usually between 20-250 metres deep. |
| Harvest methods |
Otter trawl
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| Management |
Managed by Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries. Trawling is only permitted in General Use (light blue) Zones of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It is not permitted in Marine National Park (green), Preservation (pink), Scientific Research (orange), Buffer (olive green), Conservation Park (yellow) or Habitat Protection (dark blue) Zones of the Marine Park.
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| Monitoring & research |
The king prawn fishery is a multispecies fishery. Until recently, all 'king prawns' were recorded in commercial logbooks together so that it was difficult to determine the species composition of the catch in regions where several species were caught together. This has now been addressed so that the species of the king prawns are reported in commercial logbooks.
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