Ezra Malpaz loves a spot of fishing but had only heard negative things about the commercial side of it until a school social studies lesson taught him otherwise.
Something fishy was happening at Whangarei Boys' High School yesterdayand it was all part of the Year 10 lesson.
Social studies head of department Jay Warren invited commercial fisherman Greg Hayes and his son Nick, a Whangarei Boys' High School old boy, to the school to teach the students about sustainable fishing. The pair also brought in a few fish and taught the boys how to fillet and cook them.
"We try to, as much as possible, make it relevant to the students and a lot of our boys have an affinity with the ocean. A lot of our boys they either fish or dive or surf, so we wanted to steer away from traditional sustainability conversations around dairy farming and make it more real for them," Mr Warren said.
He said Greg talked about what they do on boats to ensure there's no by-catch, or over-catch. He said it also debunked a few myths about commercial fishing, which sometimes got a bad rap.