Don’t Step on Crocodiles

Book excerpt: Richard Mounsey grew up in a fishing community in Victoria, Australia. His stepfather and brother were fishermen and he was destined to follow in their footsteps. However, secretly he dreamed of becoming a Fisheries Officers and one day a National Director of Fisheries. Without having influential friends in the right government circles he realised at the age of 14 he would have to gain outstanding experience to give him the edge over other would-be Fisheries Officers. Thus he set a course that risked life and limb to achieve his goal, the only way he knew how. As a teenager trapped aboard a Japanese trawler he was physically abused, treated like a slave, thrown overboard, bitten by sea snakes and attacked by a crocodile. He wasted time working on the family shark boat before winning a Churchill Fellowship that took him to the polar reaches of Canada and a world of big catches and high stakes. With a few dollars behind him he went into a bad partnership in a trawler back home before becoming the United Nations Master Shark Fisherman consultant in the Caribbean. Five years later, in 1987, back in Australia, he headed up the Northern Territory’s Fishing Technology Section. During this period crocodile encounters and sea adventures dominated his daily life.