White Spot virus has been detected in a third Palmers Island prawn farm leaving around 50 prawn trawler owners staring down the barrel of a two-year extension on the control order preventing them from removing any green prawns from the Clarence River.

For an industry already on its knees after no income for the past 16 weeks due to the current control order, this third detection on April 21 on a prawn farm on North Bank Road spells further problems.

White Spot virus was first detected in NSW at a Palmers Island prawn farm in August 2022, then in February it was again detected by the Department of Primary Industries DPI at two prawn farms on Palmers Island and the control order was issued preventing the harvesting of uncooked crustaceans from the Clarence River.

The NSW DPI reassured consumers White Spot does not pose a threat to human health or food safety, and NSW seafood, including prawns, remains safe to eat.

Dean Opalniuk remembers being 10 years-old on this father’s prawn trawler learning from him in the good old days.

Now, after trawling the Clarence River for 25 years he is staring down the barrel of potentially a $100,000 plus loss in less than 6 months as the White Spot control order has Dean and about 50 other fishermen with estuary prawn trawling endorsements locked out of the Clarence River and facing collective losses of well into the millions.

Last Friday Mr Opalniuk said prawn trawler fishermen had two meetings, the major meeting about a Class Action lawsuit involving about 50 local fishermen.

“Friday was more about starting the Class Action and getting the fishermen to understand what a Class Action is, it’s the first time I’ve ever been involved in one,” he said.

“There’s probably going to be about 50 fishermen involved in the Class Action, that’s 50 fishermen who are affected.”

Along with the majority of the fishermen involved in the Class Action, Mr Opalniuk hasn’t received an income from prawns for the past 16 weeks.

“In the peak of our season we average $3000 a week, which is over a five-year period of taking averages,” he said.

“The 16 weeks prior to now that’s what we’ve lost…and we’ve had seasons where we’ve actually made good money right till the end.

“Obviously we have asked for compensation and the DPI have come back and said they can’t afford to pay.”

Despite having endorsements permitting him to fish for other species, Mr Opalniuk says his business has taken a massive hit due to the control order.

“Our endorsements are worth nothing…I’ve gone from a business worth over $200,000 plus to now, potentially its worth nothing,” he said.

The only financial assistance the trawler operators have received is a discount on their management fees from the government.

“I’m one of the fortunate ones that I can make a living because I’ve got other endorsements to do other things, but there’s a lot of other guys that restructured their licence to be prawners only, and they pay a lot of money to do that, and now there in a position where they haven’t had a pay for 16 weeks, they can’t go to Centrelink because you own a business, you can’t get benefits,” Mr Opalniuk said.

“Everyone is wondering what to do, do they hang in, are they going to get paid out, are we allowed to go back to work, no one knows and that’s what’s really killing people, not knowing.

“If the DPI can come out and say we are going to come up and pay you this amount of money, we know what’s happened, it’s not your fault, it’s coming in from overseas, it’s a biosecurity breach, we’re going to compensate you…but as yet no compensation has been offered.

“We need updates weekly, every fisherman in this estuary that holds a prawn endorsement, the DPI have access to everyone’s email, so if it’s something weekly, just something, because the hardest thing is not knowing.”

Mr Opalniuk has been heavily involved in testing the Clarence River for White Spot with the DPI.

“In more than 3000 tests on prawns and other species we have no positive results and guys are going ‘what is going on’,” he said.

“I’ve got a young family and they are asking me why you are being restricted when there’s no positive results in the wild, it’s in the prawn farms not in the wild, so how can they just do this.”

Despite no White Spot infected prawns being caught in the Clarence River, Mr Opalniuk said as the most recent detection is classed as a breach of the biosecurity control order, the fishermen have been told by the DPI the control order preventing them moving green prawns out of the river will be extended for two years from June 14.

“The season finishes at the end of May so you can basically say it will be 20 weeks we haven’t received an income for,” he said.

“We had a meeting with Biosecurity last week and they said it will be extended for two years.

“They are saying to us from the 14th of June it will trigger a two-year period where we can’t move any uncooked product out of this area.

“In six months’ time, if one of the prawn farms get White Spot disease that triggers an automatic control order of another two years from that date.

“This could go on for more than two years, for five, eight or 10 years, no one knows.

“That is the uncertainty that we are living with, that they’ve given us.”

A NSW DPI spokesperson said the DPI is developing a recovery plan, including consideration for businesses affected by White Spot.

“We are working with affected fishers, prawn farmers, the Clarence River Fisherman’s Cooperative and their representatives to explore short, medium and longer-term options to assist in their recovery. DPI will explore extensions if necessary to protect the industry,” the spokesperson said.

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 10 May 2023.

Related story: Class action planned over White Spot, White spot order crippling Clarence fishermen