Western Australia’s Exmouth Gulf and Shark Bay prawns are the first fisheries under the West Australian government’s $14.5 million initiative to go under full assessment against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard for sustainable fisheries.
These two fisheries have tipped the scales of wild-capture prawns in Australia, now more than half the total harvest of wild prawns in Australia are part of the MSC certification program, said MSC Fisheries Manager, Matt Watson.
Minister for Agriculture and Food and Fisheries Ken Baston sees the value of third-party certification for fisheries.
Department of Fisheries research shows that WA prawn fisheries operate sustainably and the independent certification against the MSC standard will give us the chance to tell the world not only how good the prawns from Exmouth and Shark Bay taste, but how well these wild-catch prawn stocks are being managed, Baston said.
Western Australian Fishing Industry Council (WAFIC) chairman Arno Verboon said this announcement marked an important milestone in the sustainable management of the state’s two biggest prawn fisheries collectively worth more than $20m a year.