Prawn farming first

AUSTRALIA - A Beenleigh prawn farm has set a world first by harvesting a commercial crop of black tiger prawns grown from parent stocks bred in captivity.

For decades, farmers have relied on wild stock collected at sea to produce black tigers, Australia's most popular prawn.

But results have been inconsistent, prompting Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture, the CSIRO and other groups to look for an answer to a worldwide farming problem.

Aquaculture's marine biologist Brian Murphy said the farm, beside the Logan River at Rocky Point near Beenleigh, had begun with parent stock caught in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

"We then bred from these as we looked for procedures that allow us to fully control the prawn production process," he said yesterday.

"We have just completed a 50-tonne harvest of black tigers that were the third generation to be bred in our hatchery from that original stock. Their growth has been as good, or better, than the progeny of wild-caught parents.

Source: The Courier Mail