Duration

45 minutes

In this lesson, students will consider the impact of overfishing and investigate the recreational abalone fishing rules.

Preparation

This lesson is part of a unit of work on the text Blueback. It assumes some previous study of the text has already been completed. View the full Unit here.

Students will require a copy of Student worksheet: Abalone fishing rules and will need access to the internet in order to complete.

Western Australian curriculum

LEARNING AREA STRAND SUB-STRAND CODES
English Literature Responding to literature ACELT1620, ACELT1621
English Literacy Interacting with others ACELY1699, ACELY1709
Science Science understanding Biological sciences ACSSU112
Science Science as a human endeavour Use and influence of science ACSHE100
HASS Knowledge and understanding Civics and citizenship ACHASSK117

Steps

  1. Blueback introduces students to the concept of overfishing through the character Costello.
  2. Discuss with your students –
    • How do they feel about Costello’s character?
    • How is a commercial fisher different to a recreational fisher? (A commercial fisher is fishing for a commercial purpose – i.e. to sell their catch. Recreational fishers catch for their own personal use and are not permitted to sell their catch.)
    • Do they think that fishing activities should be regulated? (i.e. should there be fishing rules in place?)
    • What sort of rules should be in place?
    • What does the term sustainability mean and how do fishing rules help with the sustainability of a species?
  3. Provide students with Student worksheet: Abalone fishing rules and direct them to the Fisheries website to find out the recreational abalone fishing rules.

Keywords

abalone, blueback, tim winton, recreational fisher, commercial fisher, fishing rules, fisheries, western australia

Linked External Resources

Abalone recreational fishing