Huka Prawn Farm. Taupo. New Zealand.
S 38° 37.730 E 176° 06.150
60H E 421878 N 5724029
Nestled on the banks of the Waikato River, just down river from the famous Huka Falls, you will find New Zealand's only Prawn farm, The Huka Prawn Park, producing up to 32 tonnes of prawns per year from 19 ponds.
Waymark Code: WM8X5D
Location: North Island, New Zealand
Date Posted: 05/24/2010
Views: 2
The Prawn farm has developed the ability to breed and grow tropical prawns in captivity using waste geothermal heat from the geothermal power station next door. The farm can not use the geothermal water directly into the ponds due to its silica content so therefore, uses heat exchangers whereby the geothermal fluid heats fresh Waikato River water to 20 degrees which is then circulates through to the ponds.
The Giant Malaysian Prawn species found at Huka Prawn Park was selected for its fast growth rates and resistance to disease. If they escaped into the Waikato River they would not survive, because the water is so much colder than their ponds and they could not get to the sea to reproduce.
Freshwater prawns have a hard outer shell that must be shed regularly in order to grow. Because of these periodic moults, growth occurs in increments, rather than continuously. This results in four distinct phases in the life cycle; egg, larvae, postlarvae, and adult.
Breeding stock are kept in tanks indoors, dying at about two years of age. New breeding stock are brought in continuously, selected on size. A big female will produce 10,000-80,000 spawn versus 10,000-20,000 for a small female.
Females spawn up to five times a year and a 50 gram female can produce up to 50,000 eggs. Every three months or so, they snap out of their exoskeleton and become very soft and vulnerable to being eaten by others. This is when mating takes place.
Each male has a ‘breeding flock’ of up to seven ‘ripe’ females. The males are jealous creatures, attacking other prawns which get too close and dragging into line any females that get too far away, with his large pincers.
Within a few hours of mating, eggs are laid and transferred from the head to the underside of the tail.
When females are ready to spawn – indicated by their bright orange eggs turning brown – they are shifted out of fresh water tanks into a salt water mix, essential for larvae survival.
Larvae are skimmed out with a sieve, and removed to a salt water tank where they spend about a month being fed a diet of sieved mix of scrambled eggs and minced mussels. This process mimics nature, where females travel to river mouths to spawn, then return upriver.
Next, the post larval shrimps are moved to first an indoors fresh water nursery then to the ‘big wide world’ of the ponds to grow. Their diet is now a custom-made high protein concentrate.
The shrimps are monitored monthly, by netting a few and bringing them back to the laboratory to be weighed. They are ready to harvest at about six to eight months of age, weighing around 30 grams on average (although there is a huge variation).
The harvest takes place most Wednesdays, with the plug pulled on the pond the previous evening and the harvesting crew picking up prawns the next day and grading them on size.
Algal blooms can be a problem for the farm, but these are overcome with the old farmer’s trick of placing a bale of barley straw in any pond affected.
There is next to no waste from the farm, due to sensible stocking. However, indoor tanks do need to be vacuumed occasionally (especially if a flood has filled them with silt) and ponds are cleaned out with a grader with the resulting muck taken home by staff for use in their gardens.
The Prawn Farm has developed into a popular tourist attraction.
Contact:Huka Falls Road, Lake Taupo, New Zealand
Phone: +64-7-374 8474
Email: info@hukaprawnpark.co.nz
Product: Prawns.
Relavant website: [Web Link]
Address:
Huka Falls Road,
Taupo., New Zealand.
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