Australia’s wild prawn fishers often venture to sea for days and weeks at a time to catch prawns in the wilds of nature.
From stormy weather that hits the West Australian coast, to the wet humidity in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the roaring 40s through the Great Australian Bight or the mastery behind crossing the bar at Clarence River, prawn fisher’s seafaring skills are essential to their safety and repeated return home with Australian wild prawns.
Why prawn fishing?
"You can’t fish and not be an environmentalist. You can’t not care about it because its your livelihood. You don’t want to outfish the waters because then what are you going to do next year, what are you going to do the year after, what are your kids going to do?"
Alex Tucker
2019, NSW fisherwoman.
“I take a lot of pride in the Spencer Gulf Fishery in the way that we manage it so sustainably. Not only are we looking after the environment but we’re reaping the rewards. I get a real kick out of going to a restaurant and seeing a Spencer Gulf King on the menu. My goal as a fisherman is to leave the fishery in as good a state to my children to what it was handed to me and to how my grandfather found it some 40 – 50 years ago."
Clinton Scharfe
2014, 3rd generation prawn fisherman, Spencer Gulf.
“I never knew anything else. I liked the river. Yes it’s quite a good way (of life) but it’s hard work, just the same. Well, that’s all I knew. If you’re a bricklayer you wouldn’t want to go and get a job in an office somewhere, would you?"
Albie Singleton
1990, 2nd generation Hawkesbury River fisherman.
“It is a dangerous way to make a living, but we all accept the risks in exchange for our mostly magic workplace. You never have two nights the same. The ocean changes from being like a millpond to a raging, frightening mash of great waves and white water everywhere. But deep down that is part of why we love it.”
Merv Hargraves,
2016, NSW and QLD prawn fisherman.