A visiting Israeli scientist could hold the key to saving Taupō's iconic Prawn Park which is experiencing incest amongst its crustaceans.
A dwindling gene pool and COVID pressures ripped the guts out of the popular tourism business, which offers prawn fishing and water activities across six hectares.
"About five years ago we started to notice a change. People started having trouble catching prawns and so we started to look at the behavioural patterns of the prawn. They had become more cannibalistic and less interactive with the hook," said Huka Prawn Park co-owner Richard Klein.
Klein has engaged the help of Israel company Enzootic and Professor Amir Sagi, who is visiting New Zealand this week.
"We have a genetic issue that needs to be actioned, so we can take the park into the future."
Klein likens it to going from distant cousins breeding a decade ago, to "brothers and sisters, and they don't go too well when they interact inappropriately".
Prof Sagi and his team are in the final stages of a new breeding programme in Israel whilst Klein works alongside the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to satisfy quarantine requirements.
"We at the University of Ben Gurion in Israel have developed new lines and solutions for growing prawns. We have a line that is pathogen-free, its progeny produce only females that are less aggressive and less territorial with higher yield."
One female will yield up to 30,000 prawns according to Klein who expects to have the new brood stock in his 19 ponds ready for fishing by the end of the year.
"So when we reinvigorate that genetic base we have a lot of options going forward and we will set up a programme where we will import prawns every five years."
Prof Sagi claims mono-sex populations are in demand globally because "they are very safe environmentally because if they escape they will not breed or threaten the environment like invasive species".
While prawn fishing is off the menu for now, Huka Prawn Park's other water activities including paddle boats, and heated foot baths continue to attract visitors in the same way they have for more than 30 years.
The Park, which is currently for sale, has also just secured a 35-year deal with Contact Energy's neighbouring Wairakei Geothermal Power Station to access vast amounts of hot water that would otherwise go to waste.
Klein described the new, powerful heat exchange system with huge amounts of low carbon heat as "the Rolls-Royce of heating systems" that will ensure a viable future for the park and its prawns.
A future where tourists will soon be able to 'seafood and eat it' again.
