GEOFF Fidden started commercial fishing in 1948; part of a highly respected fishing dynasty that stretches over five generations dating back to 1918.

Geoff’s grandfather, Bill Goldsmith started the family connection with the sea when he arrived on the northern side of Port Stephens from Mosquito Island in the Hunter River.

I visited Geoff on many occasions and we talked for hours in his home, just metres from the water at Pindimar, a small fishing and oyster village on the northern shore of Port Stephens.

I enjoyed every moment and learned more about the fishing game in those few hours than I had done over many years of recreational fishing.

Not only did I learn the very basics of fish behaviour, but I learnt of all the social interaction, the importance of relying on your mates and the raw fun that went with being a commercial fisherman out of Tea Gardens.

A master fisherman and prawner, Geoff Fidden represented the Tea Gardens commercial fishermen for many years, battling bureaucracy to ensure that fishing remained a sustainable and viable industry.

As I have been so deeply entrenched on the south side of the port, the Myall River, the magnificent lake system and the fishermen who work the waters on the north side, have always been somewhat of a mystery to me – a bit like Broughton Island.

Looking across the port, I could see it every day and often wondered what made the place “tick”.

One thing I was aware of was the richness and abundance of fish over on the north side.

I’ve always been interested in the Pindimar Ice Works, the shark industry that boomed until the shark numbers dwindled and the Port Stephens Canning Factory that followed.

Outlined by Tea Gardens historian Jan Winn, an odd offshoot of the fishing industry was the shark catching and processing station opened at Pindimar on the north side of the Port in May 1927 following a failed attempt to establish an ice works in 1917. Marketable commodities were shark hides, livers (to become cod liver oil) and the fins which were considered a gastronomic delicacy by the Chinese.

Sharks were caught by netting.

The first netting took place in Salamander Bay and yielded 30 whaler sharks of between 100 and 500 pounds.

Soon however systematic netting, which accounted for approximately 25,000 sharks, exhausted the supply around Port Stephens; business suffered and in 1933 was forced to close.

The plant was then converted to a fish and oyster product cannery until it was eventually destroyed by fire in 1938.

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE