Thousands of avid fishers are expected to flock to the Top End this summer, with today marking the launch of this season's Million Dollar Fish competition. This year is the ninth instalment of the annual competition, which aims to draw interstate anglers up north in the hopes of catching a huge prize.
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TVTranscript
00:00 It's a beautiful day out here in Darwin, a beautiful morning to get on the water.
00:05 I mean, look at this vista.
00:06 We were out at six o'clock in the morning on the boat ready to go and there were already
00:10 some fishermen putting their boats in the water ready to participate in this year's
00:14 million dollar fish season.
00:16 And there's plenty of people doing it.
00:18 We were told on Thursday there's been 17,000 registrations for season nine of million dollar
00:22 fish already.
00:24 So there's plenty of competition going up for that million dollar fish.
00:28 And it's already proven to work, this massive tourism campaign.
00:32 It's designed to attract anglers up north and it's been working.
00:35 Last season we saw $71 million of a stimulus to the NT economy from the fish competition.
00:41 A third of that came from interstate.
00:43 So a lot of people don't come up here during October to March.
00:47 That's when the million dollar fish season is because the conditions are tough.
00:50 It's very hot.
00:51 It's very humid.
00:53 But this competition has managed to still bring people up and you can see from the registrations
00:56 it's probably going to work again this year which the NT government are very happy about.
01:00 So million dollar fish, it's a very exciting competition.
01:04 Basically the government released a whole bunch of barramundi in the water.
01:06 They're all tags.
01:07 This year they've released $110,000 barramundi.
01:11 So a quick $10,000 if you catch that one with the tag.
01:14 And they always release a million dollar fish which of course is worth a million dollars
01:19 which is amazing.
01:20 But this year they've released $2 million fish which is even more exciting for the anglers
01:25 up on the top end.
01:27 And they've actually brought in all the million dollar fish from all the previous seasons.
01:30 So the million dollar fish has never actually been caught but they're going to bring in
01:34 all million dollar fish from the previous seasons.
01:36 So there's $11 million fish swimming in top end waters ready to be caught.
01:40 Even more chance to win big.
01:42 No one's caught it yet but $925,000 has been handed out across the nine seasons of the
01:47 competition which is fantastic.
01:49 Could be a million this year.
01:50 In fact the government have guaranteed that someone will catch the million dollar fish
01:54 this year.
01:55 How?
01:56 I don't know.
01:57 Honestly it's a tough ask.
01:59 How are they going to make someone catch a fish?
02:00 It's not tracked.
02:01 It's not trapped.
02:02 But the Minister for Major Events up here in the Northern Territory, Paul Kirby, he
02:06 says that the competition organisers have policies in place when the season goes on
02:11 and they're going to tighten those up and make sure that someone does catch this huge
02:15 fish.
02:16 Here's what he had to say.
02:17 It's not something that they'll discuss widely.
02:19 So yeah, they've made sure that they've been checked, that they'll be still within the
02:23 terms and that all of the agreements are still legal and binding.
02:28 So that's why we can absolutely guarantee someone will catch the million dollar fish
02:31 this year.
02:32 It's already become like a fugitive kind of arrangement where clues start getting given
02:37 out Dan for the location of the fish.
02:39 You've got your rod.
02:40 Dan, how are you as a fisher?
02:42 Are you any chance of winning big?
02:44 Look Casey, I hope so.
02:47 I haven't done fishing in a long time.
02:49 I used to go fishing with my dad as a kid a lot but I'll be well tested with my skills
02:53 up here.
02:54 But you know, as I said before, there's 17,000 registrations already for this season of million
02:58 dollar fish.
02:59 A lot of competition.
03:00 Merv Hughes, a very popular cricketer is part of the competition as well.
03:04 He'll be fishing up in the top end.
03:06 But as I said before, 11 million dollar fish are up for grabs.
03:10 Of course, once one of those fish is caught, the rest of the 10 will revert to $10,000
03:14 fish.
03:15 So I'm not complaining.
03:16 A cheeky 10 grand would be great but oh, seems like I've caught onto something here.
03:19 What's this?
03:20 Oh, you're kidding.
03:23 A million dollar croc.
03:27 I mean, a million dollar croc is not worth anything this one but you've got to make sure
03:33 top end waters, we do share with the crocodile.
03:35 So any anglers up here, make sure you stay safe, look after yourself and steer clear
03:39 of these ones.
03:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]