Dom celebrates World Earth Day with a black bream king
Today we celebrate World Earth Day a day dedicated to increase awareness of environmental problems, but also for communities to reflect on the beauty of nature in their own backyard. As Aussies, we are pretty darn lucky to live in such a remarkable part of the world.
Perth Chapter President Dom did just that and headed out in his kayak to fish the Swan and lower Canning rivers in search of the humble black bream.
“We launched the kayaks before daybreak to fish the Maylands stretch of the Swan River. I had success just minutes after sunrise with a 36cm black bream smashing my soft plastic in a foot of water,” Dom said.
“Like most bream of this size, it put up a good fight, diving for the cover of a nearby log, but I was eventually able to bring it by my kayak to net it. The fish was likely be over 20 years old, so it was well versed in how to break off a line.
“As the day wore on my lure could only find a few small breams, but the larger model earlier in the day made the trip well worthwhile.
“The popularity of the areas I fish was abundantly clear. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their time in and around the water, whether they were fishing, boating, rowing, bird watching or just having a picnic on the riverbank.
“The entire Swan and Canning river systems are hugely popular and important to our health and outdoor lifestyle,” said Dom.
This year’s theme for World Earth Day is Restore Our Earth, which mirrors our mission at OzFish of habitat restoration. We are completely dependent upon the natural world for a lot of things and so are our fish. Losing habitat means losing individuals species and this means entire populations will be negatively affected. With that, we lose the species individual role in the ecosystem. When these roles break down, the ecosystem becomes out of balance and even more loss of life occurs. This chain reaction can have an impact on every living thing.
In acknowledging this year’s theme, Dom took time to utilise the technology onboard his kayak and do some mapping of the river’s seabed. What is under the water is invaluable information when it comes to selecting suitable locations for rehabilitation.
OzFish and our dedicated volunteers like Dom are committed to consulting with the local community to determine the end goals for projects. Thoughts and ideas about suitable fish habitat from OzFish members are not just welcomed but encouraged at Chapter meet-ups to help form the basis of our restoration work.
After all, it is a grass-roots community and the ideas of recreational fishers that drive what we do so we all get to enjoy fishing in the future. You too can become a habitat hero like Dom.