Northern Prawn Fishery season opens

14 August 2008

News from the north by Annie Jarrett, Executive Officer, NORMAC

The 2008 tiger prawn season opened on 1 August. Even with the reduced fleet size of 52 boats, NPF operators will need a very productive season to offset the rapid rise in fuel costs which is impacting severely on the fishing industry in general. Fuel now represents over half the operational costs in the NPF.

The majority of the NPF fleet installed electronic log books before the beginning of the tiger prawn season. As a result of the industry/ NORMAC decision to move to a fishery wide e-log system, 44 of the 52 trawlers installed e-logs.

All skippers were trained to use the e-log program by staff from CatchLog Trading Pty Ltd and additional at-sea support will be provided over the next couple of months to ensure the system is working properly. E-logs are expected to provide a more cost effective and efficient mechanism for collecting fishery data and will facilitate in-season management of the fishery.

The NPF featured as a shining example of how prawn trawl fisheries can be sustainable when managed in an eco-system based framework at a WWF forum on shrimp fishing which took place in Darwin in July. A highlight for the international attendees at the workshop was a field trip to look at an NPF trawler, including TEDS, BRDs, trawl gear and e-logs.

NPF industry is working with AFMA and NORMAC representatives to develop the framework for the trial of co-management in the NPF over the next three years. The Commission will consider the details of the NPF co-management approach at its August meeting.

Page last updated 14 August, 2008