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]
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