The Western Australian Fishing Industry Council has hosted a professional development day (PDD) for secondary school teachers as its places a strong emphasis on education.
It was designed to help gauge appetite for an education packaged aimed at home economics and vocational high school students.
John Harrison, WAFIC’s chief executive officer, said: “We recognise the need to build community support and understanding of the fishing industry if we are to properly support fishers to continue to supply sustainable, fresh and high-quality seafood from some of the world’s best-managed fisheries.”
He added: “We are currently developing a pilot package with the help of a fantastic working group of teachers, that will help other high school teachers and students learn more about the sustainability of Western Australia’s (WA) commercial fishing, pearling and aquaculture sectors.”
As part of the PDD, teachers were each given a big poster that showcased some of WA’s under-utilised fish species. Celebrity chef Peter Manifis also designed recipe cards to complement the species depicted on the poster.
Teachers are encouraged to consider that the generally cheaper price of under-utilised species makes them more suitable for practical cooking lessons in the classroom.
Rhys Arangio from Austral Fisheries, Steve Davies from Marine Produce Australia and Matt Watson from the Marine Stewardship Council all delivered a range of presentations during the PDD.
“The presentations were designed to increase knowledge about the sustainability and variety of WA’s commercial fisheries and to highlight the social and economic contribution the industry made to the State,” Mr Harrison said.
He concluded: “It was encouraging to see that our exit survey of teachers following the PDD revealed that they had found the presentations highly informative and felt their knowledge of the industry had increased dramatically.”
