ALBANY fisho Keith Smith is celebrating after winning a fantastic six-night charter
fishing trip for two to the Montebello Islands off the Pilbara coast in North West WA.
Keith is the major prize-winner of the WA Department of Fisheries’ 2012/13 Send Us Your Skeletons research program.
The program encourages recreational fishers to donate their fish frames (filleted skeletons with the heads and guts intact) to help departmental scientists with vital monitoring of the State’s most prized nearshore and demersal fish species, like tailor and West Australian dhufish.
As a thankyou for taking part, all fishers who participate are entered into quarterly
prize draws and a grand prize draw at the end of each year. Along with other prize donors, charter fishing operator Monte Bello Island Safaris has provided generous support by donating a dream fishing trip prize for the last three years. The same prize is up for grabs in 2013/14, thanks again to Monte Bello Island Safaris.
Smith won the prize by donating the skeletons of tailor that he caught during the Denmark Angling Club’s annual open day fishing competition on Australia Day this year.
Department of Fisheries Executive Director of Research Dr Rick Fletcher praised the
contributions of the recreational fishing community and the recreational fishing industry.
“This year over 500 recreational fishers donated more than 8,000 fish frames, which once again gives us a very strong foundation to make reliable assessments of some of WA’s most important fish resources,” Dr Fletcher said.
“However, more frames and new donors are always needed – the monitoring never stops. We thank all our supporters in the recreational fishing industry for their prize contributions and also other businesses across the South West, for acting as collection points where fishers can drop-off their fish skeletons.
“Aside from Monte Bello Island Safaris, we would also like to thank Mills Charters, Port
Bouvard Charters, White Salt Restaurant, Fishing WA, Pristine Fishing, Shakespeare, Bricap Distributors, UglyStik and Recfishwest for their generous prize contributions over the last year.”
For further details on the Send Us Your Skeletons program, see www.fish.wa.gov.au/frames.
