Community engagement

[Cosi] Oh wow this is like one of the coolest places you can come if you love your fishing down here at West Beach. The SARDI site is epic, like 100 people work down here researching fish so that our fish stocks here in South Australia survive forever.

These guys are the Snapper and this is my favourite place down here, these big tanks of Snapper are actually breeding and how about this, they breed, they grow them out here and then lots of them they release back into the ocean.

They have released over half a million Snapper that have been bred out of these tanks right here. You can actually visit this site, they have open days and school groups come through and I highly recommend you do if you're interested. Just head to the website down here for all of the information. You got to come and stand here to see Snapper up close. It’s just so amazing.

I want to talk to you guys about protecting our fish here in South Australia. There's a mob that do that better than no one else in the state and that's who we're about to head out with.

Kobe is a Fisheries Officer her. Her job is to look after fish numbers in SA across commercial fishermen, recreational Fishers and to help out with traditional fishing and aquaculture.

[Kobe] I feel like I've got an important role in sustainability of fishing, that's really important to me. I like to see fish stocks lasting generations and for people to be able to go fishing with their grandchildren and then they grow up and they go fishing with their grandchildren it's very important.

[Cosi] Over 360,000 of our South Aussies go fishing every single year. It's massive like little buddy here he loves fishing more than any kid I know.

[Buddy] oh I'm on I'm on I'm on I'm on he yes yes yes oh no.

[Cosi] so you got a got a girlfriend or something mate.

[Buddy] no why why not uh cuz can't be bothered and fishing's too important to me yeah yeah good point mate.

[Cosi] what's it like coming out fishing with us today?

[Buddy] yeah good honestly I take every opportunity I get to go fishing. I don't really care where I'm fishing when I'm fishing, how I'm fishing, just as long as I am fishing.

[Cosi] No time for a girlfriend by the sounds of it.

[Buddy] No, no way.

[Cosi] I tell you they cost a bit of money too mate.

[Buddy] yeah I've heard that I've heard that as well.

[Cosi] Fisheries Officers spend a lot of time on the water checking we're all doing the right thing. Now the good news is 99.9% of us all get it and follow the rules.

[Kobe] good day guys, how you going?

[Fisherman] hey I'm well I'm well.

[Kobe] had any luck?

[Fisherman] yeah now we're having a not bad little day. It's up and down. You know fishing is fishing okay. Lots of Snapper in the water but uh we've got to unfortunately throw them back in.

[Kobe] Snapper bans are something that is a very hot topic at the moment. It's really important that the ban stays in place until the stocks are at a point where it can handle the level of people that are wanting to go out and catch them.

[Kobe] I can imagine when the season does eventually open there's going to be a lot of people that are going to flock out there and catch them so we need to make sure that it's fully sustainable so that we don't have to then close it.

[Cosi] hey I want to stop down and thank anyone that's watching right now that volunteers. There's this mob called Fishcare. There are a bunch of volunteers that help deliver fishing educational programs to the fishing community and they talk to fishers about the need to protect and preserve our resources for future generations.

[Cosi] I love that Allan has been a fish care volunteer for ages and he loves it.

[Allan] I started fishing at the age of six many years ago in England and it became something a passion I was getting toward retirement age and I knew about fish so I got an interview, did the training and 9 years later I'm here.

[Kobe] It's really important for people to keep up to date with what the current rules are a few ways that you can do that is by downloading the SA fishing app. You can visit the PIRSA website or you can ring 1800 fishwatch and ask questions through there. It's really important to keep up to date with the rules as they do change quite a bit with the science and everything.

[Cosi] Could you picture yourself cruising the oceans of South Australia and becoming a Fisheries Officer? Well the good news is right now PIRSA are looking for more people like Darcy and Kobe to protect our fish stocks here in South Australia. So there's jobs there if you want them and I reckon it' be an amazing job.

Most importantly, I want to tip my hat to all the Fisheries Officers that work right around the South Australian waters for looking after our fish stocks because we want them for now and we want them forever. We're very lucky here in this state to be blessed with the best fishing in the world let's keep it that way.