Prawn Spotting
 

G'day all. Just wondering about the prawn spotting business in NQ. I understand that the season has drawn to a close for this year, but was wondering when does the work pick up, and who does this sort of work?

Do the prawn spotting contracts usually go to the same flying company from year to year, or is there any way of bidding for the job? If so who would you contact

What planes are most frequently used?

Cheers for any info.


:D :D

The best place for spotting prawns in Cairns is Woolworths at Smithfield.

Gravox, I don't know anything about prawn spotting, as I come from an area of Aust where we don't catch prawns in the sea. However I am lead to beleive that prawns are caught at night under bright flood lights and three days either side of a full moon. If the operation is of the type I have described, I would like to know how aircraft prawn spotting operations at night would assist in prawn catching? The next time I go to Mooloolaba I will make a point of going out and do some prawn catching on one of the trawlers. I am sure to learn.

Gravox... next time you see a post from Compressor Stall, send him an e-mail. He should be able to answer at least some of your questions.

There was a thread about prawn spotting about 3 or 4 months ago. Give the search function a go if it is working.

Cheers, Dave.

[ 03 December 2001: Message edited by: Dave Incognito ]

Big base for prawn spotting is Karumba on the bottom of the Cape.Many hours flown under CASA exemptions.Operators come from far and near.All twin due to overwater C310 ,Baron ,Aerocommander etc. Try GAM ,they have a Cairns base and seem to be a regular.

Prawn Spotting.

This year there were 2 seasons. The first on April May, ex Karumba, and the second shorter one at the start of August, ex Borroloola.

No prawn company has their own planes, they cross hire various companies. In KMB and BRL this year were aircraft from AeroTropics (PN68, Shrike, 310), GAM (Shrikes), Gulfline (310), Karumba Air (310), Cape York (Navajo), Hinterland (Shrike).

It is up to the individual spotting companies how long the aircraft are spotting for. Some pull the pin after a few weeks, and others stay until the last day of the spotting season.

All in all, it is a good fun time, and a good chance to meet a few various people from other companies. A typical day in KMB was up at 0500, airborne at 0620 (first light) and fly until lunch (on average a 5-6 hour sector) then come back have a snooze, walk down to the wharf, throw a line in, catch a fish, go back, play some pool, at dusk grab a golf club and thwock canetoads into the river, then have a feed and a beer and do it all over again the next day.

After 2 weeks its a bit like ground hog day!

As for the hours, some companies have spotting exemptions - no duty limits, 120 hours a month and no 7 day total. The best bit about that is when you finish, you are on 120 hours back in town and cant work until you lose 30+ hours, so its a good chance to take a holiday that is not annual leave :)

And more questions, drop me a line.

And for those of you who want to know how to see a prawn from the air, it is not really that hard.

Prawns live in big family groups on the bottom. When they up and move as one, they pull up a huge pile of mud from the ocean floor which is easy to spot in tropical azure water.

The trick is (and that is what you spotters get paid a fortune for) is to recognise the differences between the boils of mud created by prawns, against those of fish and tides.

The spotter will record the lat and long on a notepad, or laptop, and radio (scrambled) that to his company's boats on the water.

The Borroloola season only allowed trawling at night (to protect stocks) and the Karumba season was 24 hour.

G'day Compressor stall, you have mail!!thanks for the info..

:)

Compressor Stall
2 Prawn companies I know don't charter planes. 1 company owns their own plane (Seneca) and the other company (boss being a pilot himself) hires a plane and flies it himself.
Great time had up there 2 years ago and planning on doing it again this year. Easy way to get a quick 100 hours multi, drink heaps, fish and get paid while doing it.

Speedjet,

Thanks for that, had forgotten about them.

And for the others, just remembered a tune from this year, based on a true story...

There was a Prawn Trawler Cook from Karumba
Who gave all the pilots her number,
She said with a grin
As she wiped it off her chin
"If you don't all get infected its a wonder!"

You've been warned! :eek:

i love good limericks

still don't know why people eat that crap. (prawns that is ;) ) especially at the price people pay.

my good mate is a prawn fisherman of 10 years calls them maggots of the sea.
i have to agree with him for different reasons.

Gravox you ole b@stard!
What the heck have you been up to? Last I heard, you had a backpacker on the go? ;)Good to see that your still alive.. drop me a email!