Rock fishers could be the real winners of student’s prized idea of sending a text if they’re swept from rocks.

It is considered one of the most dangerous sports in Australia, and yet more than 1 million people take part in rock fishing every year.

Isaac Heagney, who has a passion for fishing, spent his HSC year developing an invention that could help save the lives of rock fishers who end up in the water.

“Once it’s completely underwater, it sends a message and then the GPS’s coordinates are sent to a nominated phone number,” he said.

Isaac said he looked at existing products like the EPIRB, a mandatory safety item designed to be taken on board boats.

“But they’re just too big and bulky to take on the rocks, like having a bag, and you’ve got to manually set them off,” he said.

“I took the idea of an EPIRB and made it automated.

“So if you hit your head on the rocks, say when you fell in and you’re unconscious, it can still alert someone that you’re in danger.”

Making rock fishing safer

Janine Fitzpatrick lost her husband Simon Williams in a rock fishing accident in 2014.

She is impressed by the device and wishes it had been around back then.

“To have been alerted that he was in trouble as soon as he was washed off the rocks might have made a difference and saved me and our daughters years of grief.”

Source
ABC News