Selective fishing is the name of the game
Sealord is launching its updated fishing game app Perfect Catch for World Oceans Day on 8 June.
The free educational game is designed for the young, and the young at heart, to give them a feel for a skipper’s job of fishing selectively and sustainably.
Perfect Catch has been redeveloped to update the range of real Sealord fishing vessels and skippers available to players. Design elements have been refreshed and the game play adjusted to make it even more fun as players navigate through 24 exciting levels set in deep waters around New Zealand, to fish for hoki, orange roughy and other family-meal favourites.
Sealord CEO Doug Paulin says the intention of the game is to engage people in a fun, interactive way about the realities of fishing.
“We wanted to find a fun way to show young people what fishing looks like beneath the sea, and to experience a skipper’s point of view navigating fishing grounds to catch the target fish and avoid everything else – lost shipping containers included!” Doug says.
“Gaming has stepped up a notch since we first launched Perfect Catch in 2015 and we are trying to keep up with some impressive game skill levels in 2023,” he says.
“Perfect Catch is an educational game, but it’s also a lot of fun. We’ve had some good feedback from a few experts, mainly staff and employees’ children who helped test and refine the game.”
When asked how the game compares to fishing in real life, Skipper Jesse Crasborn says there are realistic elements that keep professional fishers on their toes when playing the game.
“In Perfect Catch, just as when we are fishing for real, accuracy is what matters most to ensure we are fishing selectively to mostly catch our target,” he says.
‘And in the game if you accidentally catch a shark in your net when fishing for hoki it is ‘game over’! Which is similar to what it feels like for a skipper on the occasions this happens,” he says.
As part of World Oceans Day, Doug and Sealord’s sustainability manager Charles Heaphy are talking with students at Broadgreen Intermediate School about the role of the seafood industry in kaitiakitanga / guardianship of New Zealand’s oceans and marine life.
Have a go! Download Perfect Catch from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
