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Eastern School Prawn fisheries occur along the east coast of Australia and Victoria. Stock status is sustainable in QLD and NSW, and is classified as undefined in VIC.

Eastern School Prawn fisheries occur along the east coast of Australia, in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Genetic work on the biological stock structure of this species is limited. There is evidence for some minor genetic differentiation of Eastern School Prawn in the Tweed River and Noosa River from Eastern School Prawn in other estuaries, but estuaries within New South Wales appear to be generally genetically homogenous [Mulley and Latter 1981]. No genetic information is available for Victorian populations.

As a result of uncertainty regarding the biological stock structure of Eastern School Prawn, assessment of stock status is presented at the jurisdictional level—Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Victoria

Eastern School Prawn is caught primarily as part of the commercial Inshore Trawl Fishery, operating mainly off the Gippsland coast of eastern Victoria and accounting for 97% of the total Victorian catch of this species since 2000. The Eastern School Prawn fishery is seasonal with effort concentrated in the warmer months, mostly occurring while targeting king prawns. The balance of the catch used to come from the Gippsland Lakes Fishery, which closed at the end of March 2020 following a buy-out of all commercial netting licences. Recreational catch is unknown. 

Average annual catch since 2000–01 was 27.8 t. Since the early 2000s annual catch has generally increased to a peak of 113.7 t in 2016–17 but then declined and since 2020–21 has been between 16.2 and 24 t. 

CPUE (kg/trawl hour) has undergone several large fluctuations in the nominal data every 3–5 years since 2000–01, and since 2020–21 has been below the mean CPUE of 2.46 kg/trawl hour) for the period 1986–2015 which is used as an arbitrary target reference point. CPUE prior to mid to late 2000s are unreliable, but the reporting is considered to be accurate from 2010 onwards. Biomass now appears to be depleting over the last five years following a peak value coincident with the unprecedented peak in reported catch during 2016.

Despite explanations other than declining biomass for the recent trend in CPUE, including that it is mainly a by-product species, that there are likely to be very strong environmental drivers influencing recruitment independently of fishing mortality, and uncertainty about the quality of data influencing the trend prior to 2010, the quantitative evidence since indicates that the stock is depleting, but is currently not far below the target reference point and it is unclear if the much reduced catch is sufficiently low for the stock biomass to increase in future years.

The above evidence indicates that the biomass of this stock is not yet depleted and recruitment is not yet impaired, but although the current level of fishing mortality might cause the stock to become recruitment impaired, this is uncertain. 

On the basis of the evidence provided above, Eastern School Prawn in Victoria is classified as an undefined stock.

Eastern School Prawn biology [Ruello 1971, Taylor and Johnson 2021]

Distribution of reported commercial catch of Eastern School Prawn

Queensland – Indigenous (management methods) for more information see Traditional fishing | Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland (daf.qld.gov.au) 

Queensland – Commercial (Catch). QLD commercial and charter data are sourced from the commercial fisheries logbook program. Further information available through the Queensland Fisheries Summary Report.

New South Wales – Commercial (Management Methods) Size limit – Prawn counts apply to commercial fisheries in NSW and serve as a proxy to size limit.

New South Wales – Indigenous (Management Methods) see https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/aboriginal-fishing.

New South Wales – Recreational (Catch) Murphy et al. [2020].

Victoria – Indigenous (Management Methods) A person who identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is exempt from the need to obtain a Victorian recreational fishing licence, provided they comply with all other rules that apply to recreational fishers, including rules on equipment, catch limits, size limits and restricted areas. Traditional (non-commercial) fishing activities that are carried out by members of a traditional owner group entity under an agreement pursuant to Victoria’s Traditional Owner Settlement Act 2010 are also exempt from the need to hold a recreational fishing licence, subject to any conditions outlined in the agreement. Native title holders are also exempt from the need to obtain a recreational fishing licence under the provisions of the Commonwealth’s Native Title Act 1993.

Commercial catch of Eastern School Prawn - note confidential catch not shown

1. Bureau of Meteorology Hydrologic Reference Stations 2022, Average annual streamflow anomaly plots, Queensland Logan-Albert Rivers and South Coast Basins.
2. Glaister, J, 1978, The Impact of River Discharge on Distribution and Production of the School Prawn Metapenaeus macleayi (Haswell) (Crustacea : Penaeidae) in the Clarence River Region, Northern New South Wales, Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 29: 311-23.
3. Glaister, JP 1978, Impact of river discharge on distribution and production of School Prawn Metapenaeus macleayi (Haswell) (Crustacea-Penaeidae) in Clarence River region, northern New South Wales. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 29: 311-323
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7. Murphy, JJ, Ochwada-Doyle, FA, West, LD, Stark, KE and Hughes, JM 2020, The NSW Recreational Fisheries Monitoring Program - survey of recreational fishing, 2017/18. NSW DPI - Fisheries Final Report Series No. 158
8. Pinto, U, Maheshwari, B 2012, Impacts of water quality on the harvest of school prawn (Metapenaeus macleayi) in a peri-urban river system, Journal Of Shellfish Research, 31: 847–853.
9. Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries 2018, An ecological risk assessment of the East Coast Trawl Fishery in southern Queensland including the River and Inshore Beam Trawl Fishery, Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Brisbane.
10. Racek, AA 1959, Prawn investigations in eastern Australia, State Fisheries Research Bulletin, 6: 1–57.
11. Rowling, K, Hegarty, A and Ives, M 2010, Status of fisheries resources in NSW 2008–09, New South Wales Industry and Investment, Cronulla.
12. Ruello, NV 1971, Some aspects of the ecology of the school prawn Metapenaeus macleayi in the Hunter region of New South Wales. MSc Thesis, University of Sydney
13. Ruello, NV 1973, Influence of rainfall on distribution and abundance of school prawn Metapenaeus macleayi in Hunter River Region (Australia), Marine Biology, 23: 221–228.
14. Taylor, MD 2023, Status of Australian Fish Stocks 2022—NSW Stock Status Summary—Eastern School Prawn (Metapenaeus macleayi).
15. Taylor, MD, and Johnson, DD 2022, Adaptive spatial management to deal with postflood inshore bycatch in a penaeid trawl fishery. North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 42: 334-342.
16. Walton, L, Jacobsen, I, and Zeller, B 2019, River and Inshore Beam Trawl Fishery Scoping Study. Technical Report. State of Queensland, Brisbane.