Fishing for the future

We were very lucky that a student from our hub, Tara, won the school competition
for the best Hiwi the Kiwi writing. Hiwi the Kiwi came to our school to teach us how to fish
safely and look after our oceans. Tara won a fishing rod and her writing will feature in
NZ Fishing magazine. Here is Tara's writing:

Do you enjoy fishing? You’re in luck, because today I’ll be telling you some interesting
facts about water safety, seabirds, fish, facts, and why our ocean matters.

Fishing for the future is all about keeping our oceans safe and making sure we leave
fish if they are too big, our too small. If it's too small, it's most likely still a baby and
still needs to grow up into an adult. If the fish is way too big, it could be a mother
with babies in its stomach, which is why you should leave it in the ocean and let it live.
And you must make sure you don’t catch lots of fish, you should consider others who fish,
they might still want to catch some.

Water safety is very important! You have to make sure you’re wearing a life jacket on a boat,
kayak, paddleboard, canoe and more. Don’t leave the life jacket at the other end of the boat
in case the boat/kayak/paddleboard/canoe has an accident. In case it happens too fast,
leave your life jacket on. I also think that it's very important the children are taught swimming
in schools. This is because students should be able to swim in case their boat (or whatever
they’re using), for example, flips over, they are able to swim to safety.

You don’t want to catch a seabird, right? That’s why it's really important that you don’t catch
a seabird! In other words, SOS. SOS means Save Our Seabirds. There are birds that are
almost completely gone, for example the Black Petrel bird. The Black Petrel is a New Zealand
bird, and it looks wonderful, I would hate to have them extinct. There are also some seabirds
who mistake plastic for food and accidentally eat it. Once they eat the plastic, no other food
can get through, and they end up dying. It's very sad. That’s why we should SOS!

When you catch a snapper, make sure the fish is 30cm before you catch it. If it's under 30cm
it's too small to be caught. That’s why you should bring a ruler to measure it. When you
measure the fish, you have to measure it from the middle of the tail to the nose. Make
sure that once you catch it, pick it up with a wet towel so that you don’t remove any of
the scales. If you remove the scales and end up putting it back, the fish will die. If you
do catch it and take it home, put it in salt ice. If you put it in salt ice it’ll stay nice and cold
for you to eat.

Here are some interesting facts that I think you should keep in mind. Kai Moana means
seafood in Maori, did you know that? There are also more than 3000 kinds of fish! Which
is why you shouldn’t litter because you wouldn’t want to kill any fish, especially 3000
different kinds. But unfortunately, over 1000 of those fish species are threatened by
extinction. I think that it's very sad that some fish species might go completely extinct.
And 6.5 million tons of litter enter the world’s ocean each year! I find that very disappointing
to hear.

I know that lots of people already know that our ocean is important, but sometimes people
still litter, and the rubbish ends up in the ocean. Here are some good reasons why our ocean
matters. You may not know this, but the ocean produces half of the world's oxygen. And of
course, oxygen is very important. Otherwise, how would we be breathing? Anyways, lots of
people can get sick sometimes. The ocean can help fix that, actually. The ocean provides
medicine ingredients, some that could even cure diseases. They also contain more than
97% of the world’s water. So make sure to pick up any rubbish you see on the beach.

Did you learn something? I did. Make sure to share this information, thanks for reading!