Sunday, November 20, 2011

It is all about the seafood in Port Lincoln...

Oysters, Crayfish, Blue Fin Tuna, King Fish, Abalone, Mussels etc etc.....it is caught or farmed around these parts.

Port Lincoln call their town 'The Seafood Capital of Australia'.

It is hard to disagree with this statement..
The wheat industry (production and export) is also pretty big around these parts.

Famous Fishermen from Point Lincoln include:
Dean Lukin who won a gold medal for weightlifting at the 1984 summer olympics and the owner of the famous horse, Makybe Diva (Tony Santic). There is a life size bronze statue of this (3) time Melbourne Cup winner on the foreshore here in Point Lincoln. A very proud town!

As well as feeding lots of seagulls and enjoying the lovely view from our caravan we got around town to learn more about the fishing industry.


First up we visited a Fish processing factory for an organised tour...


We had on regulation closed in shoes and donned the gorgeous hats (always good for a laugh).


The best thing about it was that Frank learnt the correct way to shuck oysters. Once again I looked busy when they were demonstrating how to do it. 


We got up close and personal with lots of seafood.

Big, fat, heavy Octopus....


Crayfish....


Crabs...



Gummy sharks...the best type of Sharks...they have no teeth!


A happy looking farmed Greenseas King fish...
Charlie is hoping to catch a big fish like this one day.....



We watched 'the best fish filleter in Port Lincoln' at work...


We also did another tour at the Marina with our new friend Jeremy..
He showed us Abalone which is the weirdest critter you could lay your eyes on.....

An Abalone diver was taken by a shark near Coffin Bay several years ago whilst ascending to the surface. Tough job!! Nerves of steel are needed to do that for a living!!

Abalone
We held real live Sea Urchins which was great because we have seen and touched so many of their discarded shells in our travels. It was great to see a living one...


We got to dress up again and take a stroll around the Marina and chat about the fishing and prawning industries. The kids were probably more interested in playing 'fetch the rocks' with this cute Kelpie...


The prawning fleet here only go out for 50 days in a calender year for stock replenishment reasons. A boat and a licence to catch prawns will set you back $4.0M plus if you can find someone interested in selling, not much at all really!

The fleet has received  MSC Certification which is a global program that recognises eco-friendly sustainable fishing which is great to hear.



There are lots of other 'Aquaculture' based activities being developed in the region including attempts to farm Blue Fin Tuna from scratch rather than catching wild fish each year.

Lots of good things going on at Port Lincoln.
Great little town!!

1 comment:

  1. A shark without teeth,definitely worth a pic. Lots of bonding going on by the sounds of it,loving the pics.

    ReplyDelete

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