After
long voyages, hungry crews needed to be fed. On board every ship were the keen
fishermen, , catching fish to eat, but also ready with a great fish tale. On some voyages there were the resident
naturalists and artists, recording, sketching and painting each new species
found – some familiar, some completely alien.
For tens
of thousands of years Aboriginal people had been fishing these waters with
spears, hooks, nets and traps, and gathering shellfish from the beaches, rocks
and reefs. These activities were of considerable interest to the early mariners
and were recorded in
the same journals and diaries, so by these direct links we learn how the original inhabitants of this
land fished at the time of first contact.
