Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune in: Seafood consumption and commercial fishing

15 minutes

Find out: Concerns, rules and regulations

10 minutes

Take action: How to buy fish / which fish to eat?

Tune in: Seafood consumption and commercial fishing

Step 1

As a class, discuss:

Who eats seafood?
What seafood do you like to eat?
How do you get the fish you eat? (Do you catch it? Do you buy it?)
If you buy it, do you know where it comes from?

Step 2

Watch clips from the film:

Blueback - Diving for abalone (vimeo.com/794746692)

Students answer the following question:

Why does Dora say that they can only take 1 out of every 3 abalone?

Extension activity (optional): Have students look up the fisheries' rules and regulations for catching abalone in your state. What do they say? Which types/species of abalone can be caught in your state?

Step 3

Students create two new entries in their vocabulary banks.

Commercial fishing: when seafood is caught for profit (to make money).

Students may like to add in a key fact to their definition to make it more informative.

Key facts:

Large-scale commercial fishing is also known as industrial fishing
During the 20th century (1900s), machines (boats, rigs etc) were invented to catch more seafood at once
In 2020, 97 million tonnes of fish were caught in an industry that employs 39 million people worldwide.

(Definitions from https://www.msc.org/en-au/what-we-are-doing/our-approach/commercial-fishing)

2. Sustainability / sustainable:

the ability to be maintained at a certain rate. The avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.

Step 4

Explain that sustainable commercial fishing allows for fishers to make a profit while not depleting natural resources.

Step 5

Refocus on Blueback and have students complete this table:

Characteristics of sustainable commercial fishing	Costello's fishing crew	Mad Macka
Provides food for human consumption
Respects marine ecosystems
Leaves enough fish to reproduce to maintain healthy stocks of marine life
Ensures that others who depend on fishing for food or their livelihoods are still able to catch fish
Follows fisheries rules and regulations

Find out: Concerns, rules and regulations

Step 1

We are developing our understanding of sustainable commercial fishing practices. As a class, work through the following definitions and key facts on the Student Worksheet (see attached). You may need to further explain some concepts.

Step 2

Demonstrate how to use Question Quadrants.

Students are to create questions that allow them to develop their understanding of sustainable commercial fishing practices. They will create questions that will lead to them investigating the topic in more depth.

A brainstorming template that has four quadrants split by a cross that runs through the middle of it.

An example:

A brainstorming tool that is split into four quandrants with a cross that runs through the middle of it.

Step 3

In small groups, students use the Question Quadrants to create questions in response to one of the terms provided on the prior Student Worksheet (eg. Bycatch, Illegal fishing).

Note: It is beneficial that students have been taught basic online research skills at this point. If this is not the case, you may need to explicitly teach research skills.

Some good websites to offer to students for their research are:

Australia: State of the environment - marine pressures (soe.dcceew.gov.au/marine/pressures/industry)
Global fishing index - Minderoo (minderoo.org/global-fishing-index/)
Commercial Fishing - Marine Stewardship Foundation (msc.org/en-au/what-we-are-doing/our-approach/commercial-fishing)
Securing Australia's fishing future - Australian Fisheries Management Authority (www.afma.gov.au/)

Step 4

On their individual devices, students should begin researching their questions. They might do this independently, or share their findings with their group.

Students should take down dot points for each question they answer.

Once students find answers to questions in the upper and lower quadrants on the left, they should discuss the questions in the right side quadrants.

Step 5

You might elect to have students perform a gallery walk so they can learn about the questions other groups asked and what their answers were. Alternatively, this can be done virtually by combining all works into a live shared document.

Take action: How to buy fish and which fish to eat?

Step 1

Explain that as consumers we need to make informed decisions about what seafood to eat because this will impact the way commercial fishing enterprises operate. If we buy a company’s fish, it will finance their continued fishing. Sometimes it can be tricky to find out all the information as around 65% of the seafood we eat in Australia is imported. Currently, those imports are allowed into the country and onto our plates without any laws for traceability, sustainability or ethics. Ask before you buy - what species is it, where is it from, was it farmed or caught, how and who by? This is one way to take action!

Step 2

Direct students to use their devices and open their App store and find the ‘Good Fish Sustainable Guide app’ and download it (it’s free!).

Step 3

Give students some time to investigate the app. Students can navigate through it, find the fish they like to eat and check if they are sustainable or not. Encourage students to take the app home and have a discussion with their family about how to eat fish sustainably.

Differentiated Learning

We trust that teachers are the best equipped to know how to cater to the diversity in their classes. At Cool Australia, we incorporate a variety of differentiation strategies into each lesson. Firstly, each lesson in this unit appeals to an array of different learning preferences. Learning activities can be completed in a number of different ways - if a student feels more comfortable speaking rather than writing, there are opportunities to accommodate this. In lessons that feature group work or learning stations, we trust that teachers will use their discretion in knowing how to best organise their students in accordance to positive working relationships and ability. Graphic organisers and scaffolds are often included so students can ‘visually think’ and keep a record of their work. While our lessons are designed to be 55 - 60 minutes in length, we trust that teachers will manipulate lesson and segment times according to the needs of their students.

Blueback - What is Commercial Fishing?

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Students will...

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