Thank you for helping keep our local prawns and waterways safe
- Don’t use supermarket prawns as bait or use heads and tails as berley
- Check your bait is from a bait shop or catch your own
- Make sure you dispose of unwanted bait and seafood in the bin, not into our local waterways.
Imported, raw prawns sold at supermarkets may carry diseases, such as white spot disease, which, if introduced into our marine environment, could have devastating consequences on our local prawn populations.
These diseases only affect crustaceans, not humans. And cooking the prawns will kill the virus which means they are completely safe to eat. It only becomes problematic if raw prawns purchased from the supermarket are used as bait, as they could introduce diseases into the wild.
Prawns bought from a bait supplier are safe to use, so it is recommended you use these or you could always catch your own.
Catching fresh bait is a great way to improve your chances of catching fish and can be a fun activity for the whole family. The fresher the bait the more appealing it is to fish. If you catch your own bait, remember movement restrictions are in place for raw prawns, yabbies and marine worms caught in South East Queensland
