Shrimply the best: National Prawn Day

20th March 2021 | Eativity editors

Get your green, sustainable prawns here! Today marks Australia’s first ever National Prawn Day, and the start of peak prawn season for both farmed and wild-caught prawns. You can enjoy your prawns on the barbie, on a pizza or in a pasta, salad or risotto this National Prawn Day knowing that Australia’s prawns are “green”, as they’re rated sustainable by the Status of Australian Fish Stocks Reports (SAFS).

Coordinated by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, the SAFS reports bring together available biological, catch and effort information to determine the status of Australia’s key wild catch fish stocks, or populations. The information in these reports is backed by rigorous science and is updated regularly.

SAFS assessed 20 stocks of prawns, including banana, endeavour and tiger prawns. Of these, 16 were rated sustainable (green) and four were rated as “undefined”, which means insufficient data was available to make an accurate assessment for that stock.

Each time SAFS reports are updated, new stocks are added and existing ones reviewed. The latest report will be released soon and will contain a new species, the redspot king prawn.

How fast can you peel a prawn?

The centrepiece of National Prawn Day is The Great Australian Prawn Peel Off – a prawn-peeling competition spearheaded by leading Australian tiger prawn brand, Tropic Co. Seafood stores around Australia will be staging peel-off competitions over the next week.

The competition offers Aussies a chance to show off their prawn-peeling skills in an attempt to win the title of World’s Fastest Prawn Peeler in Australia and make the Guinness World Record for most prawns peeled in one minute. The current record is 21 prawns.

Australians are encouraged to show their love for prawns by participating, with Tropic Co. celebrating the occasion by giving away a copious amount of its juicy, premium Australian tiger prawns for free to those whose prawn-peeling game is particularly strong.

Even if you don’t win, now is still a great time to enjoy Aussie tiger prawns. They’re not only incredibly tasty and versatile, they also provide many health benefits – they’re a great low-fat protein source and they’re packed with vitamins, minerals and omega-3s.

To find your local Great Australian Prawn Peel Off participating fishmonger, visit tropicco.com.au/national-prawn-day. For inspiration on how you can grab life by the prawns and celebrate National Prawn Day in gourmet style, you can find plenty of recipe ideas here. The SAFS reports can be viewed here.