Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

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newfisherman
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Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by newfisherman »

Prawn poo from the planned prawn hatchery at Gunn Point is planned to be pumped into Shoal Bay at around 1 million litres a day!!!

Sounds like large scale waste water to me. Any poop pumping experts on the forum that can tell us about it? Can't be great for the environment and fishery, 954 cubic meters a day of prawn waste can't be good can it?



http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_ ... 0885617560


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theodosius
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Re: Shoal Bay and Prawn poop

Post by theodosius »

Depends what point of the tide it is released and size of tides. Wouldn't want it hanging around over neaps
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by Matt Flynn »

This is part of a vast project that also encompasses a development on the southern side of Bynoe Harbour.

It is all linked to a massive development at Legune Station.

https://ntepa.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/p ... report.pdf

Surprisingly, it is not on the list of hot issues on AFANT's web page.

Can't see it on the NT Environment Centre's site either, aside from a comment on the Gunn Point road upgrade.

There was a huge battle last time there was a proposal for prawn farm waste to be dumped into Shoal Bay, and the fishing lobby won.

The problem is that Shoal Bay is a vital barra nursery and probably feeds Darwin Harbour with young barra. It already cops effluent from Buffalo Creek so now you have a potential added source. Even if it doesn't go in Shoal Bay it will go somewhere else. Big tides tend to wash stuff in and out rather than away.

I suspect the fishing lobby is now weaker despite growth in the sport.
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by newfisherman »

When was the last time? Matt, do you have any info about it and how the fishing Lobby won, or blocked the previous proposal?
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by Matt Flynn »

The previous proposal was for a prawn farm within Shoal Bay. There was uproar. The NT Govt of the time knew if they let it through they would lose many votes. The battle was won by an ongoing media effort and lobbying by AFANT.

Eventually the prawn farm plan was moved to Middle Arm and as I understand it the operators were happy with the end result, and fishos too.

Piping the waste 2km out of Shoal Bay may well be OK but the community would want to see a very good study of the currents, showing clearly where the pollutants will end up, before making a decision.

These development proposals can be shunted through regardless of environmental impacts because of cozy relationships in governments or "pro development" bias. Not saying this is the case here, but it can be a problem. Recreational fishing in Shoal Bay is already valuable, it supports a lot of Darwin businesses, the Fishcount survey years ago identified Darwin Harbour, Shoal Bay and McArthur River as the most heavily fished parts of the NT.

Interestingly, the original prawn farm proposal had an environmental impact statement (released shortly after Fishcount) by "experts" that said Shoal Bay was only fished "sporadically", surely a weasel word. Who is paying for a "study" seems to define the result.
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by Rug »

They need to look at strategies to incorporate the effluent into the receiving environment. I think it was catalyst where I saw it but they were using seaweed which was taking up effluent from aquaculture development as part of its nutrient cycle. There was also a market for the seaweed in a few different industries.
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by Jeno »

What impact would this have on the Gunn Pt reef? I would imagine not a very positive one...this area is a hidden gem in the Darwin region in my opinion and should be protected. What about the fringing reefs around the Vernon Islands?
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by nomad »

I’m in 2 minds. Prawn trawling smashes the poop out of the ocean and prawn farming has sooo many issues – but which is worse?
there are always problems when you mess with nature
Maybe they could take a leaf out of the Vietnamese prawn farming book and feed them prawns the poop from rapid creek poop farm
:lol:
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by dannett »

That headline is a little miss leading Matt. The farm will cycle 1 million litres of sea water through its pens per day. That's about one Casuarina swimming pool per day being cycled through Shoal bay. I am not sure how big Shoal bay is, but perhaps about a few hundred thousand Casuarina pools? (Just did the math and it's about 525,000 Casuarina pools assuming the bay has an average depth of 5m).

I don’t know what the filtering process of the discharge water is but I would guess less than 1% would be actual prawn poo-poo waste. Which if the prawns were out in the bay, they would be dumping raw into it anyway. And then the trawlers would be out there ripping the place up and getting all sorts of by catch.

What would be a problem is, what the quantity of algaecides and pesticides and other filtration contaminants like perlite are going to be introduced in that 1 million litres?
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by tristan.sloan »

newfishermen you've posted the wrong document here to discuss water quality. EPBC notices dont deal with water quality in-depth

You need to look at the water quality charts in the Notice of Intent. The Notice of Intent is publicly available as an attachment to the Development Consent Application

If you compare the discharge water quality to the intake water quality for the prawn hatchery (Its not a prawn farm, it will just grow the prawn larvae) it will actually be on average pumping out cleaner water into Shoal Bay than it pumps in once it has undergone settlement and treatment.

Ironically a heavy nutrient load near an outtake pipe creates great fishing due to the growth in algae and baitfish....I remember with great fondness catching mullet in an old prawn farm near ballina in the early 90's and fishing them near the outflow pipe to catch big flathead and school jewfish.....times have changes however and these days prawn farms have stringent environmental conditions.
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by Matt Flynn »

Thanks Tristan, good to know prawn poo shouldn't be an issue. Dannett raises a good point about the possible chemical treatments, are these wastes to be controlled?

Do you have links to the development application and notice of intent?
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by MR126 »

What we do not need is what happen in SE Queensland with the white spot outbreak or something similar.
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by tristan.sloan »

I'll send it to you Matt. Its a pretty hefty document.
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by Matt Flynn »

Many thanks Tristan, PDF will do if possible ... [email protected]
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Re: Shoal Bay million litres a day prawn waste

Post by tristan.sloan »

Hi Matt,

It keeps bouncing back probably because its too big (960 pages)....do you have a drop box I can put it into?
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