Free life vests a winner

An initiative to supply free life vests to fishermen at Salmon Holes over the Easter break could become an annual campaign, after a successful trial last weekend.

Local fisherman Andrew Jarvis spearheaded the campaign to supply free rental life vests through the Nathan Drew Memorial Trust at the popular fishing spot after the drowning death of a Perth tourist on April 2.

Mr Jarvis and 20 volunteers hired 25 vests to fishers at the beach between Good Friday and Easter Monday, which he said was a good outcome.

“Every person who went to the beach was being asked, ‘are you going to fish on the rocks or the beach’, so it was in their face, but some people still declined the 8offer, which was disappointing,” Mr Jarvis said.

“But I think it was a success overall.

"It’s a case of hopefully we have educated people, and we made a point of telling people who did take the vests about where they can rent them for free in stores around Albany next time.”

Mr Jarvis said strong feedback from locals, visitors, fisheries officers and rangers had encouraged him to consider running the free rental system again next year.

“We are going to let the dust settle now, but it’s probably something we will do next Easter, which could become an annual thing,” he said.

“It’s good to put something back into something you do, so for me that is contributing to the sport of fishing, making it a safer sport for everyone.”

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