Fishermen racing crocs for crabs in Wadeye as new industry emerges

Before dawn, the sea farmers are already on the water.

As the fishermen steer their boat along the mangrove-lined banks, they know they must move fast so they can load their catch onto a light plane bound for the Darwin Fish Market by the afternoon. 

For Theo Dooling, these waters feel familiar. He has fond memories of catching crabs from mud holes with his family as a child.

"You can put in a stick and just take the crab out," he says.

Back then, the biggest challenge was avoiding a pinch on the finger.

Now, the sea farmers compete with crocodiles for their bounty. Mr Dooling says the reptiles have crushed five of his crab pots in their jaws, desperately trying to poach the fleshy crustaceans.

As the pots are hauled in, it is easy to see why. Nearly all contain mud crabs, with the biggest weighing two kilograms.

A remote community

Sitting on the west coast of Australia's Top End, Wadeye is one of the NT's most unique Aboriginal communities. 

Traditional culture thrives here through music and dance, and both adults and children speak the Aboriginal language Murrinh-patha fluently. 

Its approximately 2,500 residents are cut off for half the year when the rugged Port Keats Road washes out. 

But in recent years, the community has also been one of the NT's most troubled.

It has made headlines for large-scale street fights involving weapons such as spears and crossbows.

Standard three-bedroom houses have as many as 20 people living in them, and black-market liquor is widely available but cripplingly expensive.

Yet, nearly everyone in town points to the lack of jobs as the biggest problem.

At the 2021 census, only about one in five adults had a job.

It is against this backdrop that the Thamarrurr Sea Farmers have used Aboriginal coastal licences to grow their modest operation into a larger commercial venture that could change outcomes for the Wadeye community.  

The acquisition of a full commercial licence means the fishermen can have up to 60 crab pots in the water, and they have expanded their team from three to nine workers within a year. 

On average, they send 35 to 50 kilograms of mud crabs to Darwin each week. 

"The people we brought on to the team, they are really very good," says Johnson Katuura, the sea farmers coordinator. 

"They're people who have fished all their lives." 

Joel Martin, one of the team's youngest members, said the sea farmers had already inspired local schoolkids.

"We go out to school sometimes, talk to the students, let them know that they're going to have to graduate, then they can find a good job," Mr Martin says.

Sustainability a top priority 

The NT's largest crab licence holder, the Aboriginal Sea Company, says Wadeye is the only "community-run" commercial fishing operation in the NT.

The operation is getting mentoring and training from Humpty Doo Barramundi, one of Australia's biggest aquaculture players.

Elsewhere in the NT, concerns about mud crab numbers led to a pause on commercial licences so stocks could recover. 

It came at a bad time for the sea farmers, who were about to begin commercial operations. 

But once they negotiated with authorities, the licences were temporarily converted back to Aboriginal coastal licences, then returned to commercial when the pause ended.

Tracey Leo, the deputy CEO of Thamarrurr Development Corporation, backed the way the sea farmers do business.

"We fully support sustainable harvest strategies," Ms Leo says.

She says the crew keeps detailed records of where they fish and how many crabs they take, "so that we're not over-harvesting in one … location".

The corporation is also lobbying for the Territory's fishery management zones to be reviewed, arguing that rules designed for more heavily fished areas don't necessarily make sense in the relatively "un-fished" waters around Wadeye.

Mr Katuura says the industry's sustainability is the top priority.

"We want it to be long-living," he says.

Slow and steady investment

Ms Leo previously worked with Humpty Doo Barramundi and helped establish a two-way training relationship between the operators.

She believes a fully-fledged seafood industry could emerge in Wadeye within a decade, employing about 100 people across mud crabs, a black-lip oyster farm, and some other fisheries.

"When we first invested in the Sea Farmers, there was a lot of capital infrastructure required, with a big shed and the boats and crab pots and oyster cages, but that's not going to translate to 100 jobs in a short period of time," Ms Leo says.

"We need government to recognise … those employment outcomes [are] going to take a long time.

"[Humpty Doo] were [running] 14 or 15 years before they were even profitable. And they've been going 30 years or whatever it is now … extremely successful."

The impact of 100 jobs to Wadeye would be significant, boosting family incomes in a town where only about 300 adults are currently employed. 

But it's also about the type of work. Ms Leo says most of the existing jobs in Wadeye are "very service-based", staffing places such as the local supermarket or the family centre.

"Client-focused jobs, they don't meet the aspirations of local people … there's a lot of kinship complexities, and you might not be able to serve someone if there's relationships in the kinship system," Ms Leo says.

Mr Katuura says it is important to grow the industry sustainably and carefully. 

"We talk to the people who run [Humpty Doo] all the time," Mr Katuura tells 7.30.

Mr Dooling says working with his hands on his traditional Country has given him peace and purpose.

He also wants customers to know where the mud crabs came from, and that they were caught with pride. 

"It makes me feel happy when I go out where my sea Country is," he says.

"I'm not an inlander. I'm a seaman."

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