A native prawn known as the cherabin, found in northern Australian waterways, could have potential for commercial aquaculture in the Top End.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 10 seconds 4 m 10 s Ken Robinson talks about the commercial potential for cherabin in the Top End ( Daniel Fitzgerald ) Download 7.7 MB

Trials from James Cook University have shown cherabin can be bred and grown out in ponds to over 200 grams, and there is strong market potential for the crustacean.

James Cook University associate professor Chaoshu Zeng has studied aquaculture techniques for crustaceans for 20 years, and has been researching the commercial potential of cherabin for the past four years.

Mr Zeng said successful trials growing cherabin in tanks had shown the native prawn, unlike other species, could be wholly bred in captivity.

"We don't need wild broodstock after one or two years," he said.

"Tiger prawns, saltwater prawns still need wild broodstock to be collected each year, because they cannot rely on their own [reproduction in ponds]."

Commercial venture suitable for remote areas

The infrastructure needed to grow cherabin commercially was relatively simple and was not very labour intensive, Mr Zeng said.

"I think it is very suitable for remote areas where there is not a lot of infrastructure, like northern Australia."

He said the cherabin had a market advantage because of its ability to be grown out larger than saltwater prawns.

"If cherabin aquaculture is to grow in Australia I think it should target the larger prawn market, prawn sizes more than 60g up to 150g," he said.

"The largest grow up to 220g in very short period. The saltwater prawn is usually less than 40g."

However, Mr Zeng said in the grow-out trials it was difficult to grow large numbers of cherabin to a consistent size.

"There was a certain percentage that were still very small," he said.

"Some were 2g and up to 200g. There was a huge variation in cherabin growth."

He said the growth variation was caused by the dominant males inhibiting the growth of other cherabin.

However, when the larger cherabin were removed to other ponds, the smaller cherabin grew quicker.

Potential for export

Pine Creek resident Ken Robinson has researched cherabin in his own time for years, and recently presented his ideas to the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia.

Mr Robinson said the Top End of the Northern Territory was ideal for a commercial cherabin aquaculture venture.

"We have the clean, green image, we have very large amounts of suitable land, large amounts of water, which south-east Asia are running out of," he said.

"I envisage these selling at a premium price in Hong Kong and Singapore.

"They can be shipped easily. Out of Darwin we could ship them anywhere in the world."

Mr Robinson said alongside export potential, there was a strong local market for cherabin.

"At the moment they come from somewhere in south-east Asia, through Sydney Fish Markets, and they are wholesaling at $20 per kilo," he said.

"I can imagine in a Top End restaurant — as long as the water is kept above 25 degrees they are quite comfortable — they could be on display [in a tank] and cooked on demand."