Wild barra licence buy-up a NT success story
A WILD punt by a WA seafood company has hauled in big rewards since it set up in Darwin a little over a year ago. It’s a success story that sees Wild Barra Fisheries with more than 70 per cent of the NT’s barramundi licences and hooked on Darwin and its future.
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A WILD punt by a Western Australian seafood company has hauled in big rewards since setting up in Darwin a little over a year ago.
It’s a success story that sees Wild Barra Fisheries with more than 70 per cent of the NT’s barramundi licences and hooked on Darwin and its future.
Wild Barra policy and environment manager Geoff Diver says the rapid success has seen their fleet grow from one to four fishing boats in Darwin.
The latest addition was the North Islander boat that has a new state of the art, fully enclosed, climate-controlled processing area to assist the crew in preparing the quality ocean-caught fish that Wild Barra Fisheries has built a reputation for.
“We are working on a mothership model at the moment, which means we can process the fish at sea and freeze them at sea, giving a better quality product,” Mr Diver said.
“It also allows us to keep things like the fish frames and the fish skin for value-add markets.
“It is a goal of ours to go to a minimum waste model.”
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Mr Diver said with 70 per cent of the licences, Wild Barra Fisheries was not hunting for more.
“The plan for the moment is to consolidate and develop some of the fisheries management tools and work with key stakeholders like Indigenous Australians, and the recreational and charter sector,” he said.
“The NT market is important to us and we see room to develop the fishery more without threatening its sustainability.
“There will never be a shortage of reasonably priced barramundi in the NT.”
Mr Diver said while the company had not originally intended having so many fishing licences, other fishers had decided they wanted out, something he said could in part be due to changing attitudes towards a career in the industry.
“Right across the industry there is quite a significant drop in people wanting to enter the fishing industry,” he said.
“The oil and gas sector has taken a lot of the professional mariners, skippers and engineers.
“It has been a generalised trend with being at sea and fishing is becoming less and less popular.
“It’s a bit like farming. It can be a bit of a lifestyle career choice being at sea for extended periods.
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“It takes a reasonably long time to work yourself up from deckhand to skipper and perhaps people are seeing faster progressions by staying on land.
“It does not affect this fishery as much, but in some areas you can be away for months at a time.”
Mr Diver said work was in progress with the NT and federal governments to get the fishery accredited to open up an export market.
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