Outpouring of support for young Adelaide fishers screamed at by adults in viral video

A group of 13-year-old boys who were subjected to a foul-mouthed tirade by local adults for fishing in a lake have had the last laugh.

A group of 13-year-old boys who were verbally abused and had their belongings thrown around by adults in a foul-mouthed tirade for fishing in an Adelaide lake have had the last laugh.

Viral video of the incident last week sparked outrage online and an outpouring of support for Emilio Visentin and his friends, who were targeted by a group of locals accusing them of damaging the environment by fishing around Delfin Island in West Lakes.

The clip, recorded by one of the boys and shared on social media by a parent, showed at least four adults threatening and yelling abuse at the boys after spotting their lines in the pond.

One of the men grabs a boy’s bag and flings it onto the grass away from the island.

The viral footage sparked outrage online. Picture: Facebook

“You can’t do that,” one of the teens protests.

“You’re ruining the environment, we’ll ruin your things,” one of the women tells him. “You ruin our things, we ruin your things.”

The boys are told “you’re not supposed to be on that island” and the adults threaten to contact the police and local high schools.

“Where does it say that, miss?” one of the boys asks.

“You know you’re not allowed on the island, you’ve all been told you’re not allowed on the island,” one of the women says. “Don’t come back. You shouldn’t have come.”

The boy insists “I can be here, it’s public property”.

That prompts one of the men to explode in anger.

One of the men screamed ‘f*** you’. Picture: Facebook

“You go!” he screams. “You get the hell out of here immediately! Otherwise I’ll smack this phone out of your hand. Piss off! Go! Shut the f**k up. You shouldn’t be here. You go away! F**k you!”

Adelaide’s fishing community rallied around the teens after the footage went viral, with hundreds of people attending a gathering at the same spot on Saturday morning to show their support.

The boys pulled a 60-centimetre carp from the lake — and were even gifted new fishing gear by RecFish SA.

“We just want their confidence to bloom from this and make sure they continue coming out here and enjoying themselves,” RecFish SA executive officer Asher Dezsery told 7News.

“We were really concerned. We’ve obviously gathered the community around to make sure they all turn up and show a bit of solidarity with these boys. We’re really excited and happy to have such a community response supporting them.”

A large group gathered at the same spot in solidarity this weekend. Picture: 7 News

Emilio Vistenin said he was ‘a bit shocked’. Picture: 7News

Emilio’s father, Matthew Vistenin, told the Adelaide Advertiser he found the video of the “unnecessarily aggressive” adults difficult to watch.

“I came down to check on him that day,” he said.

“Emilio and six of his mates were just around the lake, they were playing the Crows match on the radio. It was all good, no worries … I went home. Then fast forward an hour later and I get a call from my son telling me [the adults] were throwing their stuff around and yelling.”

Speaking to 7News, Emilio said their behaviour “made me feel a bit shocked, kind of surprised, wasn’t really expecting it”.

“I mean it was such a beautiful day to just come out and have a fish and then that sort of just happened,” he said. “It was pretty crazy to be honest.”

Adelaide’s fishing community rallied around boys. Picture: 7News

One of the women in the video, speaking anonymously to the Adelaide Advertiser on Tuesday, said there had been growing frustration at teenagers in the area committing a “soup of mischief”, but said in hindsight the adults acted out of line and “everybody is feeling very embarrassed about the behaviour”.

The woman admitted she “didn’t know” for sure if the teenagers confronted in the clip had been known to cause trouble in the neighbourhood.

Under City of Charles Sturt by-laws fishing is permitted in the lake but fishermen need to be six metres away from any property boundary — however by-laws are only enforceable over adults.

“We don’t like to see that sort of hostility between community members — and clearly the residents that are around there are feeling upset about the activity around the lake — but from what I saw in the video the kids were really pretty well behaved,” City of Charles Sturt chief executive Paul Sutton told the newspaper.

Originally published as Outpouring of support for young Adelaide fishers screamed at by adults in viral video