Independent Director
My part of the aquatic resource industry is as a wife, mother and partner in a Wildcatch fishing business. Our business is based in Adelaide, South Australia and we catch Blue Swimmer Crabs.
As a traditional grassroots primary industry business I am the person on the land managing the home, bookwork, children and general support for my husband as the sea based fisher. This is an eclectic mix that is both rewarding and challenging- being a fishing wife in a capital city has had its moments.
I have chosen to be involved with SAWIN (South Australian Women’s Industry Network) to widen my access to like minded people, other groups and enhanced skills. This has resulted in my role as co-ordinator of the South Australian Seafood awards, a bi-annual event celebrating the seafood industry and following winners through to National awards.
I have also assumed roles on industry based councils and a long term member of the South Australian Crabpot Fishers Association.
I became involved in the South Australian Crab fishery in its infancy as an experimental fishery in 1986 when my husband to be was allocated a permit to fish. The journey has been a rollercoaster taking us from our hometown of Ceduna to Adelaide, from a 5 metre trailer boat to a 25 metre purpose built aluminium vessel, from the 2 of us to include 3 children and an employee count of 6, from a licence for 100 crab pots to three licences totalling 310 pots and associated quota allocation, from outgrowing our backyard to needing a rented shed for storage and a small catching based business to a sizeable enterprise that will form a basis for a Family holding with potential to develop in terms of marketing and value adding.
I am proud to be a part of the industry that supplies wild caught seafood for public consumption.