Aussie prawn farm prospering with sustainable fish meal

Trials of a new sustainable fish meal to feed stock in a major Australian prawn farm are proving a success.

Such farms traditionally use fish meal made from wild caught fish.

But Australian Prawn Farms in Queensland is using a product made from off-cuts and waste from seafood processing plants such as tuna canneries.

General manager Matt West said the results had so showed the new fish meal was as effective as the traditional version.

"Within a couple of weeks, we will analyze the data and know how it goes, but preliminary results show that it's very, very good and, in fact, it is like for like with the current diet that it's evolved from," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The price of wild-caught fish meal is currently 2 Australian dollars (1.52 U.S. dollars) to 2.50 Australian dollars (1.90 U.S. dollars) a km for quality prawn food.

It has rapidly risen over the past year after the main international supplier Chile reduced quotas fishermen could catch.

The new feed ensured prawns were still being fed fish, rather than an artificial alternative. Endi