Fond farewell to IFS bosses
It is with sadness that fishers say farewell to two stalwarts from the Inland Fisheries Service. Both men were committed to their respective jobs and will be sorely missed. John Diggle has retired as director and will be replaced by acting director Ryan Wilkinson.
Wilkinson is a fly fisher who has been ‘hooked’ on our wild trout fishery since he caught his first Tasmanian brown trout from Arthurs Lake in 2006, the IFS website reports.
He has a PhD in fish biology from Flinders University in South Australia, and moved to Tasmania in 2006 to work at the University of Tasmania specialising in fish health, physiology and reproductive biology. During his six years at the university he taught and researched, as well as supervising a number of honours and PhD students.
Since leaving the university, Wilkinson has had various roles in the Tasmanian salmon industry. In 2019, he started work for Biosecurity Tasmania – initially as the industry collaboration manager and more recently as director of Biosecurity Operations – managing a busy operational team of more than 100 staff across the state.
Wilkinson will be based in the North at the government offices in Prospect, however, will be regularly spending time with the IFS team at New Norfolk.
“I won’t even attempt to fill the very big shoes left behind by John Diggle, however, am very excited about the prospect of working with the IFS team over the next 12 months and positively contributing to the management of our amazing fishery,” Wilkinson said.
Also moving on to greener pastures is Chris Wisniewski. The IFS website says Wisniewski will retire from his section manager (IFS management) role in July.
Wisniewski received his letter of appointment from Commissioner of Inland Fisheries Rob Sloane on Christmas Eve in 1988 and started on the job as fisheries inspector based in the Hydro village at Tarraleah in February 1989.
After 18 months at Tarraleah, he was transferred to Liawenee and worked with Phil Potter and Val Dell maintaining law and order on the Central Plateau. In September 1995, Wisniewski was appointed as the fisheries inspector on the Carp Management Program based in Hobart, spending long periods of time at the lakes.
In the early days on the carp program he oversaw the building and maintenance of carp containment structures while keeping the poachers, targeting the monster Lake Crescent trout, at bay. During this period Wisniewski worked closely with John Diggle learning about and developing strategies to eradicate the carp.
Wisniewski led the carp team for many years and saw the eradication of carp from Lake Crescent in 2009. He was then successful in getting millions of dollars in federal government funding that enabled the increased effort that resulted in the eradication of carp from Lake Sorell. Wisniewski built the first modern concrete prototype spawning trout trap at Liawenee in 2006 and then the other remote traps across the plateau that followed. This supports the adult trout stocking program to this day.
Wisniewski said: “On reflection, my most important achievement was seeing the carp management program through from beginning to end and ridding Tasmania of carp. In more recent times I have enjoyed working on and seeing the revival of the wild rainbow trout run at Liawenee and the return this is having for anglers fishing in the Great Lake.”
Rob Freeman will be acting in the section manager role over the coming months.
The scallop season opened last weekend and will run until July 31. The D’Entrecasteaux Channel remains closed and you do need a licence to take scallops.
Good luck with the fishing over Easter! And don’t forget if you have some photos to share, send to fishtas@outlook.com