A freshwater prawn farm enterprise was established in 1987 in New Zealand to make use of geothermal waste heat from the Wairakei power generating field on the North Island. Approximately 2200 tons of prawns are imported each year into New Zealand, therefore, an effort was initiated to try and capture some of this market with a domestic product. Presently, there are 19 ponds varying in size from 0.2 to 0.35 ha (0.5 to 0.9 acres) with an average temperature of 24C. The water comes from two different sources: river water and heated water from the plate heat exchanger. The farm is presently capable of producing up to 30 tonnes (33 tons) of prawns per annum of prawns, with plans for expansion of the operation in the near future