As part of our TAP links into community and industry and to help our Year 7/8 Eco Warriors learn more about their environment, we invited Fishcare Facilitator, Mitch McMaster, into the classroom to prepare students for a fishing session at Boggy Creek later in the term. Mitch described his career path which included studying Marine Biology at Deakin University at Warrnambool and lots of volunteering with groups like the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority (CCMA) before becoming a regional Fishcare Educator. He outlined three main fishing rules for recreational fishers which included a minimum size limit, a maximum bag limit and a maximum size limit and students discussed the rationale behind these different rules. Students learnt about the various types of fishes that could be caught in regional rivers, dams, along the shoreline and at sea. Mitch instructed students on how to tie a Half Blood Knot to secure their fishing hooks and told them their results were “knot bad”. After their invasive pests investigation earlier in the year students were well prepared to learn about the damage that invasive species, whether they be international or non native to a specific area, could do to an ecosystem. They learnt how to safely remove a fish hook and handle a fish with wet hands or a wet tea towel if it was to be caught and released or breached the fishing regulations. The lesson concluded with a large carp puzzle which helped students identify and understand a fish’s features such as mouth type, eye, barbels, gills, pectoral fin, lateral line, dorsal fin, caudal fin, anal fin, pelvic fin and scales. Happy fishing! Comments are closed.
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April 2024
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