A team of scientists in Australia have developed a way to breed Western School Prawnsin the laboratory and then release them into the rivers in the area.

This practice encourages the old practice of prawning in the rivers by local residents. The practice had fallen due to the falling number of prawns in the rivers.The Swan River Trust, the Challenger Institute of Technology and Murdoch University have joined hands with Recreational Fishing Initiatives Fund, Recfishwest and the WA Department of Fisheries to work on the initiative.

Fisheries Department announced that they have released 1.5 million river prawns into the rivers. These small crustaceans form a basic diet for fish such as bream, flathead and cobbler. Some say that if they are left alone, they might breed again but prawning by residents might not allow their population to grow in the rivers.

Hundreds of families used to go to the river's bays and beaches on summer evenings with nets to cover every piece of riverbed to catch prawns. Some say that overfishing might again impact the river side communities as people will leave creatures on the river side.