Fed: Northern prawn stocks under pressure: ABARE

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2004
Fed: Northern prawn stocks under pressure: ABARE

A report says Australia's most productive prawn fishery is being over-exploited and
is in danger of long term decline if there are no major changes.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, says tiger and banana
prawns are being taken from northern Australian waters too quickly and too often for their
long-term sustainability.

The northern prawn fishery stretches across one million square kilometres, from Cape
York in the east to Cape Londonderry in Western Australia, and provides most of Australia's
prawns.

But the bureau says there are now signs of long term declines both in the profits of
the fishing industry and in the stocks of the prawns it targets.

It says in the case of tiger prawns, fishing is likely to be at or above sustainable
levels, with financial pressures on fishers likely to encourage over-fishing.

AAP RTV sw/sb/wz/jo

KEYWORD: PRAWNS (CANBERRA)

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