In this interactive activity, students will try their hand at our simulated fishing activity and observe the effects of fishing pressure on our fish stocks.
Duration: 1 hour
The role of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is to conserve, develop sustainably and share the use of the State’s aquatic resources and their ecosystems for the benefit of present and future generations. To do this, the Department must manage the fishing activity of recreational, commercial, and customary fishers.
In Western Australia, over 600,000 people participated in recreational fishing in 2020/2021. A key objective of fisheries management is to achieve a sustainable yield – the idea that given certain management arrangements, a specified number of fish should be able to be fished (removed from the water) each year, without depleting the population.
This activity asks students to apply several rules and regulations that recreational fishers must remember when going fishing. These are designed to ensure that fisheries in Western Australia are sustainable and that we have fish for the future.
Cost $5.00 per student
Activity Outline:
In Fishing for Sustainability, students participate in a multiple rounds of a simulated recreational fishing activity to observe how fishing practices affect fish stocks. Students will see the effects that carefully considered rules, or the lack thereof, have on fish populations.
Through the completion of this activity students will learn:
- How the Department’s fishing rules are designed to limit the total catch and protect fish at vulnerable stages in their lifecycle, or to totally protect vulnerable or rare species.
- The variety of rules used to protect fish stocks including size and bag limits, licences, seasonal and area closures, restricting the type of fishing gear or totally protecting certain species of fish at risk.
- How to use tools provided by the Department to identify fish species and their associated size and bag limits and how to measure a fish.
Note: The complexity of fishing rules is differentiated according to year.
Pre-excursion and post-excursion resources:
The fisheries management information presented to students in this lesson can be found in Fact Sheet: Fisheries Management.
Before attending your excursion, you may wish to watch the Video: What’s a Fish with your class or complete the Lessons: What’s a Fish for your year level (linked below). Other related resources below further explore the fisheries management principles students learn during this activity.