REEL FUN: Fishcare volunteer Rodney Tonkin with Cargo Public School students Joshua Tyson, Lilly Ashford, Blake Tyson, Haylea Whybrow and Kyra Cain. Photo: STEVE GOSCH 1016sgfishnews2
YESTERDAY’S warm, spring weather was the perfect opportunity for Cargo Public School students to throw a line in teacher Lesley Thomas says.
Fifteen students took part in the Get Hooked fishing workshop with messages of safe and sustainable fishing top of the agenda.
Mrs Thomas said attending the workshop was a great opportunity for students to learn a number of life skills.
“It’s caring for the environment, it just ticks so many boxes across the learning areas,” she said.
“It’s a skill they’re not necessarily ever going to learn at school.”
Mrs Thomas said some students do not live near a place where they can fish so learning where fish come from and how to catch them is a good thing.
“Most of them think fish comes frozen in a little box from the supermarket,” she said.
Since the free workshops were introduced in 2008 by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI), 89 schools have registered to be involved.
NSW DPI schools facilitator Columbine Waring said around 1000 students a year undertaking the workshop.
Sustainability is key according to Ms Waring, and is just one of the messages the children learn during half-day workshops.
Lessons include casting skills, knots and rigging as well as rules and regulations including size and bag limits are taught during the session.
“What we like to do is teach the basics of rules and regulations for fisheries,” she said.
Ms Waring said they target primary school aged children to set them up with good fishing lessons for life.
“The students tend to go home and teach the parents,” she said.
“We teach them they can have fun fishing ... safe and responsible fishing and looking after the environment,” she said.