They are again fed pellets, with zooplankton growing in the ponds providing additional food. Prawns are voracious eaters and will turn cannibalistic if undernourished. At the end of the five months, the ponds are drained and the prawns picked up manually from the bottom by four to six harvesters. Ninety percent of the harvested prawns are sold to the Bar and Grill next door, with the rest going to gourmet restau-rants in Queenstown, Wellington and Whakatane. This is 10 percent of the prawns consumed annually by Kiwis.
Prawn farming is labor-intensive with high overheads.