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Spot prawns festival more popular than ever at Vancouver's Fisherman's Wharf

An event that began 10 years ago as a way for Vancouver chefs increase awareness of spot prawns in the industry has grown into a tasty feast where tickets now sell out days in advance.

10th annual event drew 2000 for popular spot prawn boil

Chad Pawson · CBC News ·
Wild BC spot prawns are a delicacy known around the world for their sweet, delicate flavour and firm texture. (CBC)

An event that began 10 years ago as a way for Vancouver chefs to encourage the use of local spot prawns on their menus has grown into a tasty public feast where tickets now sell out days in advance.

"It's grown from a little group of chefs having a little spot prawn festival to ... it's enormous, look around," said chef Robert Clark from Vancouver's Fisherman's Wharf on West 1st Avenue.

"Every year it increases, it just gets bigger and bigger, and better and better."

On Sunday, 2,000 people paid $17.50 each for platters of seafood at Vancouver's Spot Prawn Festival which is hosted by the Chefs' Table Society of BC.

"This is our biggest year ever," said Céline Turenne, the society's executive director who added the event sold out a week before.

The line-up at Vancouver's Fisherman's Wharf on Sunday, May 15, 2016. Two thousand people paid $17.50 to for a plate of spot prawns, which are the largest of the seven commercial species of shrimp found on the west coast of Canada. (CBC)
Some spot prawns can grow up to 23 cm in length. In B.C., approximately 2,450 metric tonnes are harvested annually. (CBC)
Vancouver chef Robert Clark helped establish the spot prawn festival 10 years ago and says local chefs want to use the seafood because it is sustainably harvested. (CBC)
Along with the prawn boil, fisherman also sell the shrimp directly to consumers as part of Vancouver's Spot Prawn Festival. (CBC)

According to the festival, B.C.'s spot prawn season starts in May and lasts up to eight weeks.

Up to 90 per cent of what is caught is consumed in Japan and other Asian countries.

There is a limit on the number of vessels that can commercially harvest spot prawns and the number of traps that can be used. The fishery is closed when stocks approach a pre-determined level.

"We're about elevating British Columbian, Canadian food, Canadian cuisine," said Clark about local chefs using spot prawns. "And part of that is making sure that what we buy, what we grow, what we serve, what we cook comes from a sustainable source.

"It's the single most responsible decision we can make as chefs."

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