Two Lakes and Coorong fishers will be part of a group of four touring the US to cast a line and exchange ideas on how small scale fisheries are selling both seafood and themselves to their communities.
Glen and Tracy Hill, Coorong Wild Seafood, Meningie, along with Suzie McEnallay, Tuncurry, NSW and Andrew Tobin, Townsville, Qld, left Australia yesterday (Wednesday) for a 10 day tour visiting Oregon and Norfolk Virginia in the east.
They will meet local fishers and share their experiences in operating in Australian fisheries, where direct connection with the public is now proving to be the key to business success.
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation’s communications, trade and marketing manager Peter Horvat said this was a valuable opportunity for fishers to share experiences and work towards building a better connection with their local community.
“Inshore fisheries are among the most productive in Australia, but they are quite often overlooked by consumers, despite being right under everyone’s noses,” he said.
The team of travellers was selected for the high level of initiative they have shown in their fisheries and connection within the community, and their ability to share their experience with other fishers.
The US tour will start with a visit to the Port Orford Ocean Research Team, in Oregon, a non-profit, community-based effort dedicated to maintaining access to natural resources by people who are fishing selectively, while promoting sustainable fisheries and protecting marine biological diversity.
Then, the fishers will travel to Norfolk in Virginia to attend the Local Seafood Summit. The goal of the summit is to bring together those engaged in Community Supported Fisheries and direct marketing arrangements to help knowledge exchange and networking.
Ms McEnallay is operations manager for Wallis Lake Fisherman’s Cooperative in NSW. Hailing from a four generation fishing family she has found that focussing business efforts on marketing top quality seafood to locals returned the greatest success.
Dr Tobin also plans to engage with the locals and learn as much as he can following expanding his repertoire from being a fisheries researcher at James Cook University, a commercial line fisher, to now include being a retailer recently buying a fish store with his wife. The fish store’s tag line “every fish has a story” highlights their desire to better communicate information about their fish to customers.
Mr and Mrs Hill are expanding their operation and are looking at how more direct marketing to the public and welcoming tourists through their facilities can improve their business. They have been operating their fishing business for more than 20 years in the world’s first MSC certified mixed species fishery and have been featured with their fish on Australia’s MasterChef.
