Prawn farm ponds dry out to schlep shrimp to market
MYSTERY SOLVED
As you drive by the Mossman prawn farm and left wondering why the ponds are dry, there is a reason.
Peter Regeling, who was the project manager for the Mossman farm which opened in November last year, said following the harvesting of the prawns, the ponds were drained.
“We plan to re-fill the ponds in six or seven weeks,” he said.
Prawn farm ponds are periodically dried out to minimise the Total Suspended Solids (TSS) leaving the prawn farm.
Located on the road to Mossman, Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture (GCMA) is one of the largest Black Tiger Prawn farming companies in Australia with an annual production capacity of close to 1,000 tonnes.
The original farm was founded on Cane land at the mouth of the Logan River, South East Queensland by Noel Herbst in 1986 and remains a family-owned business.
GCMA has two farms: its Mossman farm and the other near the Gold Coast in South East Queensland.