Banana prawn fishers face 'worst' conditions yet in late Queensland wet season

Australia Broadcast Center

28-04-2025

It is the season of banana prawns in northern Australia, but trawler operators in the Gulf of Carpentaria say they are coming back to shore with not much in the nets.
Queensland's late wet season devastated towns and agriculture across the state, and the latest victim is the banana prawn industry, which is grappling with the worst season many have ever seen.
Whether consumers will feel the pinch is yet to be determined.
Bryan Van Wyk says he has not ever seen a banana prawn season this poor.
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Supplied: Bryan Van Wyk
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That is because much of last year's bumper season is sitting in freezers across the country, according to Bryan Van Wyk, who manages Austral Fisheries' northern prawn division.
"There's still a lot of leftover prawn stock around on the market from previous big years," he said.
"We've got the worst of both worlds … a market that is reasonably full, which means lower prawn price, and the lowest productive season we've ever seen."
Call to consumers
Prawn sales tend to skyrocket twice a year — Christmas and Australia Day.
Banana prawns are usually flushed into the Gulf of Carpentaria with the first downpour early in the year.
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ABC Rural: Abbey Halter
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As this season's banana prawns hit the shelves, private Carpentaria and Northern Prawn Fishery trawler manager Greg Albert urged people to consider seafood as a protein source when grocery shopping, especially as steak prices had risen.
"The price of prawns has basically been the same for the last five years in the supermarkets, yet I think it's just the habits of the consumer," he said.
"They're more economical than some of the other proteins."
Greg Albert wants more people to eat prawns to support the local industry.
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Supplied
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Why the monsoonal nightmare?
Mr Van Wyk said Queensland's month-late wet season flushed out many of the prawns, leaving few for trawlers to snag.
"We're basically looking at probably one of the, if not the, worst banana prawn season start we've ever had in history," he said.
Banana prawns typically settle into northern rivers, and the first downpour of rain during January or February flushes them into the Gulf, Mr Van Wyk said.
But since the big wet came later in March, many prawns failed to escape and became prey for other animals in the rivers.
Banana prawn season in northern Australia runs from late March to mid June, but the 2025 season started late.
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Supplied: Michele Burford
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He said the ones that did get out were smaller than ideal.
"It's incredibly tough, probably the toughest it's ever been,"
he said.
Mr Van Wyk said the season was likely to close early, and 20 per cent of the northern prawn fishery chose to not head out at all.
"We currently have the lowest amount of vessels that have ever participated in the northern prawn fishery banana season of all time," he said.
Fewer vessels are heading out into northern waters this year because prawn numbers are expected to be so low.
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ABC North West Queensland
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But he was confident the tide would turn for the boom-and-bust industry.
"There's still a bright future ahead, we've just got to get to that bright future," he said.
Empty ocean, empty nets
Raptis fleet manager Phil Robinson echoed Mr Van Wyk's sentiment and said he had not seen a worse season in 25 years.
"The late wet season has very much impacted the banana prawn season," he said.
He said the deluge in March was far too late to prompt any meaningful catches for fishers, and sizes were down, but the quality of prawns would remain high.
Prawn fishers are concerned about the late wet season in the gulf.
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Supplied: Austral Fisheries
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Mr Albert said the late wet season impacted the aggregations, and his catch so far was "pretty average".
"A lot of the product has been a couple of counts smaller than previous years,"
he said.
He said he had left one trawler out of the Gulf waters, with high fuel prices, lack of mother shipping and low sale prices all factors in the decision.
"We can only go out and catch what's there and try and get it to market in the best quality we can," he said.