Stuart Moodie, a 13-year old from Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia, is on a mission to save the native fish of the river that flows through his family’s farm. New South Wales and other parts of Australia have been suffering through one of the worst droughts on record, which spurred the youth to take action to protect his favorite fish from waterholes as they dry up.
According to his father, Stuart’s love of fishing has been a life long obsession, and seeing his treasured fish suffer is something the teen could not bear.
“I’ve been going down early every day after school and catching the catfish and cod and taking them out and putting them in a dam, keeping them alive as much as I can,” Stuart said.
Stuart has mainly been using hand-fishing techniques to find and rescue the fish, “I got used to getting in the waterhole nearly every day, got used to the fish feeling me and every time they touched me I push their head into the mud. It’s just easiest to keep them calm and catch them,” Stuart says.
In addition to saving native fish, the teen has also utilized the lower water to help remove and kill invasive carp that are in the river system, even getting knocked in the mud by a carp over a meter long.
To read more about Stuart’s fish saving mission, check out this article from ABC North Coast:
Country boy saves fish by pulling them from shallow water in drought
Stuart Moodie saves fish at home in Tenterfield in far north New South Wales Cod and catfish get stuck in waterholes that are too shallow for them to survive The youngster pulls the fish out with his bare hands and moves them on ‘I push their head into the mud.
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