 |
|
Northern king prawn Melicertus longistylus
Illustration © R. Swainston www.anima.net.au
|
|
| Target species |
|
Red spot king prawns Melicertus longistylus
Blue-legged or western king prawns Melicertus latisulcatus
|
| Status & trend |
|
Until 2000, commercial fishers were not required to record the proportion of their catch that were eastern king prawns and western (or blue-legged) king prawns so data reported here is generated from logbook data by selecting all ‘king prawns’ that were recorded as being caught north of 22°S.
|
| Effort in GBRWHA in 2003 |
|
Tonnes: 1,036
Boats: 281
Days: 15,023
Data extracted from http://chrisweb.dpi.qld.gov.au 30 June 2004 with permission from Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
|
| Gross Value of Production (GVP) in GBRWHA in 2003 |
|
$10.3m
Data extracted from http://chrisweb.dpi.qld.gov.au 30 June 2004 with permission from Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
|
| Location of fishing |
Red spot (see map) and blue-legged king prawns are caught north of about 22°S in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon in depths of 20 to 50 metres.
|
 |
| |
Data extracted from http://chrisweb.dpi.qld.gov.au 30 June 2004 with permission from Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries. |
|
| Harvest methods |
|
Otter trawl
|
| 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. |
| Monitoring / research |
The king prawn fishery is a multispecies fishery. Until recently, the species composition of the catch was not recorded in commercial harvest logbooks which only recorded the weight of catch under 'king prawns'. This meant there was some uncertainty about the species composition of the catch where several species are caught in the same region. This has now been addressed so that the species of the catch is reported in commercial logbooks.
The annual Long-Term Monitoring Program (LTMP) surveys run by the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries are providing this information about species composition, sex ratio and size distribution of the stocks at the start of the fishing season. |
Last updated
July 5, 2005
|
