Commonly known in Australia as Red legged banana prawn, Penaeus indicus are found from the Indo-West Pacific: East and South East Africa to South China, Papua New Guinea until North Australia. P. indicus inhabit depths of 2 to 90 m, inhabiting bottom mud or sand. It is most abundant in shallow waters of less than 30 m depth, on sand or mud (FAO 2016).

This species is part of a sub-fishery, Joseph Bonaparte Gulf (JBG), of the Australian Northern Prawn Fishery. This fishery occurs off Australia’s northern coast. The Fishery extends from the low water mark to the outer edge of the Australian fishing zone (AFZ) along approximately 6,000 km of coastline between Cape York in Queensland 142° 09' 00" E and Cape Londonderry in Western Australia 126° 58' 00" E. All sub-fisheries target prawns using twin, triple and quad otter trawls (Banks et al. 2012).

Red-legged banana prawns comprise a relatively small percentage of the total prawn catch and have had less stock assessment attention than the tiger prawns. The bulk of their catches within their NPF range come from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf (JBG). A redlegged banana prawn area has been defined and comprises the main fishing grounds where red-legged banana prawns are caught in the JBG (Banks et al. 2012).

The commercial penaeid prawns of northern Australia have been surveyed by electrophoretic techniques to determine the extent of geographic differentiation throughout their ranges in Australian waters. P. indicus showed no evidence of genetic differentiation (Banks et al. 2012, Banks and Souter 2013).

The Joseph Bonaparte Gulf (JBG) sub-fishery targeting red-legged banana prawns, which historically has operated in both seasons, but has been closed in the banana prawn season from 2007-2010 inclusive as a trial to improve the economic return from the fishery. Fishing takes place in deeper water in depths of 45 to 85 metres, with one season coinciding with the banana prawn season, and the second coinciding with the tiger prawn season (Banks et al. 2012, Banks and Souter 2013).

This fishery was certified by the Marine Stewardship Council system in November 2012. Click here to link to the MSC fishery page and to learn more about the MSC fishery certification unit.