Potentially hundreds of Australian families have been affected by contaminated Prawns over the Easter break.
South-east Queensland prawn fishers already financially crushed by white spot disease are reeling after learning their catch could now be affected by last week’s airport chemical spill.
It has been revealed that 300 kilograms of prawns that were caught, sold and eaten over the Easter break were potentially contaminated. This follows a leak from a Qantas hanger last week that resulted in toxic firefighting foam spilling into the Brisbane River. Twenty two thousand litres of it.
Commercial fishermen are furious about this stating that they weren’t given enough warning and many of them have only just been told they were fishing in the contaminated zone. Trawler Michael Wilkinson said he was not told for almost four days that firefighting foam, containing perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), had leaked at the Qantas hanger at Brisbane Airport potentially costing him a loss of $800 a day. During that time Mr Wilkinson sold 135 kilograms of potentially contaminated prawns, mostly Moreton Bay banana prawns, to local shops and suppliers.
“It’s been consumed by humans and there was no media release to tell us to stop working and stop selling these prawns,” Mr Wilkinson said.
“So now we’ve potentially sold prawn that could affect people.
The extent of this situation is still yet to be determined, whilst water samples are still being tested.
The chemical spill is believed to be responsible for the death of nearby marine life and prompted an investigation by Queensland’s environment department.
It has been another hit for an industry already affected by restrictions from white spot disease.
The blame game has also begun with the state environmental minister writing to the Federal Government saying that those responsible must pay compensation.
Plenty more to come from this environmental disaster.
