The Australian, 10 May 2001

"Raw prawn report"

Your article "Virus threat to bananas and prawns" (25/4) about deseased prawns being held in quarantine needs to be put into correct perspective.

Green prawns from Indonesia are imported not for fishing bait, but only for human consumption and these pose no harm. Imported green prawns are not used for fishing bait as this would be in contravention of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service regulations which has banned the use of imported green prawns as fishing bait since 1996.

The wild prawns that are sought after as bait are supplied by the Australian prawn industry.

Therefore, we consider this as indication of a domestic failure on the implementation of government rules, since the quarantine service has for several years banned the importation of prawns for fishing bait.

Lutfi Rauf
First Secretary (Information)

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Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, Canberra - Australia