Dwindling numbers forces prawn park to close

It’s been a Taupo¯ institution since ages ago, but Huka Prawn Park has been forced to close its prawn fishing facilities after numbers mysteriously went into decline.

New Zealand’s only prawn park has been breeding tropical prawns in geothermally heated waters for 30 years and, over the last few, numbers have dwindled. This year, numbers are lower than ever and it’s left park staff and scientists stumped.

Co-owner Richard Klein said he was ‘‘devastated’’ to have to temporarily close the prawnfishing part of the park, which sits on the upper banks of the Waikato River.

‘‘But we, along with our consulting scientists, are truly baffled about what is happening to the prawns. And for some reason the issues are worse in summer.’’

This year’s decline seemed to be a different problem to one they thought they had solved – though growing a tropical species in a temperate climate was always a challenge.

While prawns still featured in the park’s restaurant, Klein said that recently the park had not been able to grow enough to meet demand.

‘‘We’ve had to supplement them with identical ethically grown prawns from Thailand . . . They’re very much still on the menu and served in a picturesque riverside setting,’’ Klein said.

The business was committed to getting on top of the frustrating problem, he said, but luckily had years ago diversified into other activities ‘‘to get kids off the couch’’ with prawn fishing just one part of the park’s range of things to do for family groups.

‘‘We’re confident we’ll continue.’’

Visitors have been complaining about the lack of prawns at the park for some time now. Nonetheless, the park retains a four-out-of-five star rating on TripAdvisor.