Tag Archives: Gulf of Carpentaria
An explosion of lucrative banana prawns – Flood disaster turns a profit downstream in the Gulf of Carpentaria
Raptis Pearl skipper Mick McGillivray, with one of his deckhands, celebrated the best start to the banana prawn season in the Gulf of Carpentaria since 1974. A two billion dollar damage bill to Queensland graziers, with an AgForce estimate of 664,000 head dead after February floods – the worst since 1974 – has been compensated to some degree by the best start to the banana prawn harvest in the southern end of the Gulf of Carpentaria for decades. Hardest hit areas, like Julia Creek and McKinlay Shire where 274,000 head were lost, drain into the Flinders River which has nourished an explosion of lucrative banana prawns in warm shallow waters just beyond its mouth. >photo’s, click to read<14:03
Female first mate untangling the net of male-dominated fishing industry
Nadine Adams began her prawn trawling career as a cook a few years ago, but she has moved out of the kitchen since then and during the recent tiger prawn season was controlling operations on the deck of the FV Ocean Thief, which is part of the Austral Fisheries fleet. “The skipper’s in the wheelhouse most of the time so I’m the person down on the deck making sure things happen the way they should be,” Ms Adams said. “I was kind of itching to move on from the cook’s position, because I’d done it for a couple of years and learnt what I could there.” click here to read the story 11:57
Austral Fisheries charged over electrocution death on prawn trawler
One of Australia’s largest commercial fishing companies has been charged over the electrocution of a young man on a prawn trawler in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Ryan Donoghue, 20, died in 2013 while cutting rusted shackles using a 240-volt angle grinder which was plugged into a socket without a safety switch on Austral Fisheries Newfish 1 trawler. Mr Donoghues father Steven has spent the past three-and-a-half years pushing for a prosecution and better regulation of Australia’s maritime industry.,, Austral fisheries faces a maximum penalty of $1.5 million if found guilty. Click here to read the story 13:53
Forearm-sized prawn caught in Gulf of Carpentaria
A photo of the prawn sent to the ABC by Kai Thomas has generated plenty of interest on social media this week, with fishermen comparing their biggest catches. Austral Fisheries northern division manager Andrew Prendergast said it was rare to catch a prawn weighing 300g. “That’s a pretty significant prawn,” Mr Prendergast said “They’re not a target species of ours. We catch them incidentally and they’re generally always bigger than the grooved or brown tigers.” Mr Prendergast said he had never caught a prawn bigger than 300g, but he had seen one. “I do remember seeing something in the Australian fish management fishing magazine about one that was caught in the gulf, just under 400g,” he said. continue reading the article here 10:10
Gulf of Carpentaria trawl operators on track to cut bycatch by one third with new prawn net devices
Trawler operators in the Gulf of Carpentaria believe they’re on track to achieving an ambitious target of cutting bycatch by 30 per cent in three years. The northern prawn fishery’s been offering cash incentives to promote and develop new ideas for limiting the amount of non-target species caught in prawn nets. Trawler skipper Jamie Ball admitted he was worried at first about potential prawn losses when trialling a new bycatch reduction device on board his fishing vessel, Xanadu. But after measuring and comparing catches in separate nets over a two-week period, the skipper and his crew were convinced the industry was on a winner. “I was a bit hesitant ’cause I thought ‘oh well is it losing prawn as well?” Read the story here 13:34
Meet the fishermen who spend eight months at sea chasing profit, adventure and barramundi
Kooch, 43, has been battling his wits with the metre-long silver-scaled fish since he was a 16-year-old deckhand just out of school. “Everyone likes the idea of fishing,” he said. “They think it’s pina coladas and sun tans. “It’s not like that. It’s dirty, long hours and isolated.” On board his vessel Ruby were a team of three other men, itinerant deckhands from New South Wales, Western Australian and South Australia thrown together by fortune. Like nineteenth century whalers, each was chasing profit and adventure while savouring the serenity and quiet of life at sea. Read the rest here 17:55
