Children's activities help salmon farmer net new fans
A collection of online activity pages designed by Tasmanian salmon farmer Huon Aquaculture to teach children about aquaculture has gained hugely increased popularity and praise from parents during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The activity sheets were an idea kick-started by Huon’s community relations manager Pene Snashall last year, with the company then becoming a “learning partner” with the University of Tasmania’s Children’s University.
They include everything from making a boat with homemade playdough to a selective breeding wordsearch and simple maths made a little more challenging by using international code flags instead of numbers.
‘Amazing traction’
Huon is also issuing weekly challenges on its Facebook page, with a suggestion of making a boat entirely from recycled materials prompting results that ranged from vessels made from cardboard boxes to an impressive model of Huon’s Ronja Storm wellboat, complete with a fish cage and realistic water (see above).
“The education resources have received amazing traction,” said Snashall. “They have really taken off during the lockdown.”
The online resources are just part of the work Huon does with children.
Aquaponics unit
“I structure most of our community relations activities around education - supporting young people in the communities where we have an operational footprint; directly engaging with schools and helping with practical assistance to build an aquaponics unit, to work with them on plastics recycling – activities that have a link, albeit small, with what we do across the company,” said Snashall.
“We do a lot of school/tertiary presentations and I’m attempting to support the next generation to understand that we aren’t just about fish! A lot of our other Facebook posts are centred on profiling other parts of the business.”
Nature walk
Mum-of-four Zilla Lockhart is one parent who has been using Huon’s resources to keep her children occupied.
“My children, ranging in age from three to 10, have been really enjoying the Huon Aquaculture challenges,” said Lockhart.
“They loved going on a nature walk to forage for items to make salmon and coming up with ideas to get around the fact that our recycling bin had just been emptied so there was nothing available to build a boat (cushions to the rescue).
“The added incentive of a prize was the icing on the cake.”
Take a look at Huon’s online resources here.
