Prior to the Northern Prawn Fishery season start on 1 April 2014, the NPF Industry Pty Ltd, in conjunction with AFMA held pre-season briefings across key ports to educate skippers on the management arrangements for the 2014 banana prawn fishing season. These meetings are run by the NPF Industry Pty Ltd under co-management arrangements and were held in Cairns, Darwin and Karumba between 23 and 27 March.
These briefings provide an opportunity for skippers, fishery managers and compliance officers to discuss management changes, closures and other operational matters prior to the season start. As part of the briefings, AFMA compliance officers undertook inspections of turtle excluder devices and bycatch reduction devices. This gave operators the chance to ensure that their gear is compliant with AFMA regulations before heading out on the water.
A key management change for the 2014 banana prawn fishing season is the introduction of a new catch trigger for banana prawns. This objective of this trigger is to control the length of the fishing season to generate the maximum economic yield from the fishery to the benefit of operators, prawn stocks and the Australian community. This catch trigger is the first of a suite of changes that are to be introduced into the fishery over the next 12 months.
The Northern Prawn Fishery Banana prawn fishing season runs from 1 April 2014 until 15 June 2014, unless the catch trigger is reached beforehand.
The Northern Prawn Fishery is located off Australia’s northern coast, and extends from the low water mark to the outer edge of the Australian fishing zone (AFZ) in the area between Cape York in Queensland and Cape Londonderry in Western Australia. There are currently 52 vessels operating within the fishery targeting nine commercial species of prawns including white banana, red-legged banana, brown tiger, grooved tiger, blue endeavour, and red endeavour. Scampi, squid, scallops and bugs are also taken and landed.