Two In The Think Tank - 270 - The New Zealand Fish Terrorist

Episode Date: December 23, 2020

Throughout the second half of the 20th century New Zealand’s waterways were invaded by thousands of introduced fish that have changed the environmental makeup of the country. This was all the work of one man, The New Zealand Fish Terrorist, Stewart Smith - this is his story.Buy tickets to our live streamed shows (including the full extended stream of this episode!):https://sospresents.com/authors/dogoonSupport the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodCheck out our AACTA nominated web series: https://www.youtube.com/user/stupidoldchannel Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-TopicTwitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasREFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118845051/the-liberator-how-one-mans-15000-pest-fish-changed-new-zealands-waterwayshttps://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/fishing/related-articles/the-fisheries-and-angling-team/the-new-zealand-fish-terroristhttps://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/black-sheep/story/2018756857/invasive-the-story-of-stewart-smithhttp://ahnz.anarkiwi.co.nz/1929-that-pommy-bastard/https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1208/S00554/pommie-bastard-book-on-environmental-renegade-launched.htm

Hey everybody, Jess and Dave, just jumping in really quickly at the top here to make sure that you are across all the details for our upcoming Christmas show. That's right, we are doing a live show in Melbourne Saturday December the 2nd, 2023, our final podcast of the year, our Christmas special. It's downstairs at Morris House, which usually be called the European beer cafe. On Saturday December the 2nd, 2023 at 4.30pm, come along, come one, come all, and get tickets at doogawonpod.com. At Nordstrom, you can shop the best holiday gifts for everyone you love.

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And with up to $700 off your Peloton bike plus purchase there's no better time to bring it home for the holidays and work out your way unleash everything it's your workout your rules as long as you show up Peloton's instructors will help you show off and keep you coming back for more for Peloton's best offer of the season, head to onepeloton.com, all access membership separate terms apply. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising.

But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Multitask right now, quote today at progressive.com. Progressive casualty and trans company and affiliates, national average 12 month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed, who saved with progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary, discounts not available in all safe and situations. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planet broadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mites. and situations. Hello and welcome to another episode of DoGoOn. My name is Dave Warnicky and as always I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins.

Hello Dave, hello Matt. Hello Dave, hello Jess, I'm Matt. I'm Matt Stewart. Welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining us one and all. Great to be in. It's so good to be in. Do you know what this is all about this show? Well, look, I've tried to explain what I think it is. But I struggled and to be honest, so to both of you. No, thank you.

Yes, we delegated and then we had a meeting and said never again. Then we said, oh, let's give Matt a shot and he jumped in and we said, oh my God. I thought that there was, you know, a rock bottom, but wow, he lifted up the ladder. We got another ladder underneath the floor. Got to the end of the molten core. Yeah, yeah, oh my god. I've been a little around there as well. So what I did a few weeks ago is I, you know,

Sammy jokingly said, hey, if there's any, you know, musers out there that listen to the show that want to write a little 60 style jingle, like a sitcom theme song that explains the show, if anyone has never heard it before. And multiple people have sent them in. And I think we have another entry this one. This one comes in from Matthew A. Bad from Seattle. I pause slightly before reading out his surname because he's given me the pronunciation. He knows me well. Yeah, right. What were you gonna say? Matt A. Bad. I might have said, I reckon I would have gone close

to that actually. It's a full letter word. Matt, come on, give me a chance. Did he say how to say Matt? Because that is when you know, you've really stopped over there telling you you know to say your own name. Mar-to-bar.

Mortar board. Matt, a bar, oh fuck, I did fuck it up. Matt A bad. So hit it. If this is your first time joining us. Re-friend, also comedian, researching a theme. Tries to report.

I'll just listen in and he interrupts. And slename. And it always starts with a question. Oh, that is cute. That was amazing. And honestly, that's the most 60s S-1 so far, for sure. That was so good. Thank you so much, Maddo Bad, from Seattle. So hopefully that's cleared up a few things for people who haven't heard it before.

Yes, and like Matt said, the episode does start with a question. I'm doing the report this week. Justin Dave don't know what the topic is. That was all covered in the jingle while I'm going back over. So here's my question for you too. Stuart Smith is seen as an environmental terrorist in New Zealand. What kind of animal did he introduce to their ecosystem? Ooh. What a thing. That's, they don't like. I mean, no one likes a rabbit.

That's true, and someone did introduce rabbits over there, but it was not this man. If they got like, do they have snakes? No, that's not any snake. That's what I thought, yeah, I was like, I think that's not any famous thing. I think that's why I was associating New Zealand with snakes. They're like, I'm pretty sure they don't have them. Only, yeah, only just like that.

It's not snakes. No, you may be a pusher. Sock any pigs, think more wet. Fuxus. More wet, okay. Stingrays. Not stingrays, think broader. Think broader.

But we're in largest stingrays. Fish. Yes, Jess, I think broader. I think broader. But we're in largest sting arrays. Fish. Fish. Yes, Jess, it is fish. They had no fish there before. They had fish. Amazing. Hang on.

Wow, you see that before? They had some fish, but he, he, right, there was, there's no snakes, no fish, no hills, which is flat. Nothing there. Someone that brought in clumps of dirt. Yeah, one hills, yeah. Wow. And on the sixth day, he there. Someone that brought in clumps of dirt. One is.

Yeah. And on the sixth day, he rested. But that is a different story for a different day. According to the New Zealand official quoted in an article on stuff.co.nz by Charlie Mitchell. This is one of the big articles about, I'll quote Mitchell a lot. But in this article, New Zealand official said,

imagine if one guy was responsible for the introduction of rats, possums, rabbits, stoats, and pigs to New Zealand. Stuart Smith was pretty much that guy, but he just did it to fresh water ecosystems around the country with fish. Right. So he, he threw some foxes into a river. Yeah, only that were fish. Oh, okay, that clears that up. Right, so it's the equivalent. That's right. Yeah, destructive. I think for some reason, this guy,

this official didn't think people could understand just fish. So he put it in land. Yeah animal terms. I am a bit confused. I think people well it's certain kinds of fish. Yeah. Non-natives fish. Yeah. I was going to say I reckon you'll clear it up with this report. But I'm going to take it back a little bit talking about Stuart Smith and how he came up, how he grew up, and then how he came to be the fish terrorists of New Zealand. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, New Zealand's waterways were invaded by thousands of introduced species of fish that have changed the environmental makeup of the country. This was the work of just one man, the New Zealand fish terrorist Stuart Smith. Fish terrorist is one of the lamest band names I've ever heard.

Well that was the name that the people voted for, 60% of Patrons voted for it. I can't argue it when I put in the New Zealand fish terrorist. I'm like, this is going to get votes. Because you're imagining like dynamite or something being put inside a fish. But I imagine not what's happening. No, it's not what happens. Although quite a similar thing happened with a pig at one point. But we'll get to that.

Smith was born in the East End of London in 1913. According to the Otaga Daily Times, Smith's early life growing up in the East End of London was a happy playground where he had mastered the art of catching titlers in the sand hill ponds by the age of five. And this play developed into a lifelong passion. Right, so he's a lifelong titler. Yeah, love catching a titler.

Do you know what a titler is? A tiny, just little fish. Or are you telling me it's someone else? No, no, no, no, do you know what a twidler is? No, I'm saying you don't even know. Yeah, I'm not naming it first five albums. Apparently there were lots of ponds around at that time in his neighborhood as clay was being dug out to make brick houses. So that would leave divots in the ground, which would fill a grain water and then these little fish would um get in there. How do they get in there? And then kids, I guess they came in when they're real little

in the rain. Yeah. The kids would fish, fall in from the sky. I never believe it. There was fish everywhere. I said, get the bread. We'll have dinner. Get the bread. So yes, some of our fish like Gudgeon and Roach would get in there and it's really beautiful. Right. Oh my, my nickname in high school. Gudgeon. Your best friend, Roach. Yeah. So the back of my year, 12 jumper.

Gudgeon. So he got really good at fishing these little fish at a very young age and he soon figured out he could sell these fish that he caught with his homemade fishing rod and he sold them to adults as live bait. Before long he saved up enough money to buy a bike. Like he was a little kid just making cash. Just hustling. Penning's at a time sort of thing. Clearly a bright kid, Smith won a scholarship by age 11, according to a radio newsleton story on him. Life's sound pretty good at this stage, and his own die is back this up.

Later in life, he would look back on his London upbringing very fondly. But that was all about to come to an abrupt end. Smith later recalled that after turning 15, his father, quote, quite casually, said to him, you're not going back to school. You're going to New Zealand. Just out of nowhere. Yeah. Okay. Oh, just over toast. Yeah. Oh, why are you a new brother? Kids, they just send them off to New Zealand. The two just the toys. Yeah. So

according to the anarchist history of New Zealand website, New Zealand's Joseph Coates government worried about population decline at the time. The way this article discovers it's like this was the market going we're about to crash. So people are having less kids because they can't afford them. But Coates comes in and goes no we need more kids. So they started trying to combat this by offering tax cuts to those having kids as well as creating a bachelor tax on unmarried men. So if you were a man who wasn't married you'd paid more tax. Wow, that wild. The anarchist site says the message was clear, take a wife, have more babies, grow this nation's population. Like this is really rolled up a ton.

Feed children you can't afford to feed. They continue the same logic applied to the idea of growing the New Zealand population by importing young men from Britain. That's fucking crazy. But I love kids. Let's import some kids. That's crazy. That's crazy.

So, they needed farm workers and thousands of boys from poorer families in Britain were shipped down, including Smith and his brother. Their father, a gambler who had money troubles, probably saw it as a win-win. The boys would head off to New Zealand and get a job, and he'd have two less mouths to feed. Once arriving and getting to work, he found, as Smith, he found he wasn't a big fan of farming,

and spent all his free time on a local fishing boat pulling up snapper. He later recalled, I thought to myself, this is the life. Why would anyone want to farm when there's an ocean full of fish just waiting to be pulled up? Is this the excess with fishing?

Yeah, this. I don't know why, you're bothering that land, you can come out here on water. I'm just fishing there. I'm fishing there, keep believe it. Even more than the little titlers. Look at the size of the titlers they got here.

They got big titlers. Hahaha, look at the size of the titlers they got here. They got big titlers. Sorry, what'd you say? This bit's brutal. According to the Atago Times, farming did not work out the Smith. He quit after having to destroy his dog with a fence baton. The poor beast had bitten Smith after being caught in a trap. And he could see no alternative. It'd kill his own dog.

Oh my God. Oh, so rough. He then tried moving into fishing full time. Around this time, he got to know a man named Jack Alec, the head of the local harbour board. Jack became a mentor for Smith in parting both his fishing knowledge and political views. And before long, he'd converted Smith to communism.

There's a twist you probably didn't see. Yeah, there you go. It was on how I expected that sentence to end. For context, as Radio New Zealand put it, we're in the 1930s, communists had swept a power in Russia over throwing what was widely seen as an autocratic and brutal regime. The rest of the world had yet to see the darker side of Soviet style communism. For many people, communism looked like a way of the world had yet to see the darker side of Soviet style communism. For many people communism looked like a way of the future,

particularly when they saw how badly ordinary people were suffering in capitalist states during the Great Depression. Smith was amongst those who were swept up by the dreams of a communist utopia. He later became a member of the New Zealand Communist Party. So this guy, like this way of thinking about things, kind of affected how he dealt with the fish and releasing fish in the future. And then it probably led to him wanting to do it in a lot of ways. Right. So he became a communist fisher. Yes. He released those fish for the coming good. Wow. Red fish under the bed. No. Um, so they're all going to something there. Um, you think of it though.

Don't set us homework. It's a mid-report. While waiting for the utopia to arrive, he continued battling away trying to make a living in the fishing industry. Around this time, he was about to head out on a fishing job using explosives. But according to Radio New Zealand, a pig that got into his shed and ate his detonators. He was so angry that he kicked the pig, which then exploded. No, the pig exploded. Oh my god. It was one of the wackiest things I've ever heard.

It feels like it's from like a teen gross out film sort of there. Yeah, he got mad. So he kicked a pig. Which exploded. Which exploded. When World War Two broke out in 1939, no more information. I couldn't, I feel like I couldn't leave it out. No, you have to put that in.

I'm like, I have to put that in. Oh, yeah. Sure. So World War Two broke out in 1939, you have to put that in. I have to put that in. Oh, yeah. Sure. So World War II broke out in 1939, and Smith was called up for service. He wanted to volunteer for the Navy, but was instead enlisted in the army. He liked this at all. No, away from the fish. And the sea.

I know, that's what I thought of first. I'm like, obviously he wants to be on the sea with the fish, but it turns out that it was more of a fear of a conspiracy. He'd been told by a communist friend that in the New Zealand Army his fellow troops would take him and other communist members out on a mission somewhere and execute them. Right. They fully believed that. That was something that around the New Zealand Communist circles, they believed if you go and if you join the army, you won't come back.

But the Navy, they won't do that. Yeah, apparently not the Navy. So I'm not sure what that would be. So this seems to be a conspiracy theory without merit, but he fully believed it. And refusing to join the army meant he was prosecuted and sent to a detention camp as a conscientious objector. During the war, Smith's camp began running very low on food. And the people tell in the story were like, in a war effort, the people who didn't want to fight, they were like a low priority for food.

The soldiers and others were getting the food, so they were, they were doing a pretty tough at the camp. Nearby was a river that was apparently one of the best trout fishing rivers in the world. Having found out Smith was a fisherman, the higher ups at the camp got him to start fishing to help supplement their food supply. And before long, Smith had trained up a team of other prisoners to work with him to catch, prepare, and smoke 30 to 40 trout a day.

Whoa! Teacher, a team of meant to fish. But the fishing they were doing was illegal, and it wasn't long before news got down to the body bigwigs down in Capitol Hill down in Wellington. So soon after they started getting shipments of Smith Smoke Trout to Parliament House. Yeah, they're like, oh send some of it. You know, I'm fishing. Can I have some? Can I have some?

Smith found it all very humorous that he was a prisoner being asked to break the Oh, gone. Yeah, exactly. Oh, gone. Can I have some? Smith found it all very humorous that he was a prisoner being asked to break the law by those keeping him a prisoner. He found it a bit ironic and the whole situation probably further underlined the corrupt nature of the capitalist system in his mind. Right. He's like, that's these capos.

I do like in rules. This is a very funny situation, I mean. Just laughing himself to'm in. Just laughing himself to sleep in. He's pretty funny. He's apparently found an hilarious. He's like, anyway, every time he casts off, this is hilarious. I haven't seen my family in years. So funny. Because of these corrupt capitalists. Very, very funny. What are they like? these corrupt capitalists. Very, very funny. What are they like? When the war ended, Smith was released. Again, he got a funny, he got a piece of land in massier suburb in the northeast of Auckland where he built a service station or gas station. Yeah, petrol station, servo, Servo. Servo. Convenient store. Convenient store. Storch. Petroleum. Petroleum.

Supplyer. The Bowser. Yeah. The Bowser. According to his biographer, Brian Winters, I'll mention him later, but he ends up having a book written about him. He worked hard building up the business over the following 16 years before Caltechs came in and invested. I don't know if they bought some of the land or they bought some of the business, but anyway, I meant that Smith now had money flowing in regularly. So just he nailed this

investment of setting up this business because it set him up financially for life. This also opened up more free time for Smith. So I was able to direct more attention back to his passion, fishing. Oh, I thought it was running the bowser. He does love the sea. Yes. But it wasn't the trout fishing that he loved, even though he was made to do it in the prison camp. He saw that as a style of fishing for the rich. Oh, he prefers finding a puddle, dropping in a homemade hook,

and then getting a three-inch long fisher, selling it for a penny. No, 100% that, yes. You love tibbling. You love tibbling the fishing. Or more accurately, what is known as course fishing. This is the style of fishing you grew up with. As a term I hadn't heard before, have you heard course fishing? C-O-A-R-S-E.

Course. According to dictionary.com, course fish are a freshwater fish that is not a member of the salmon family. These top fishes salmon and trout and as big. So he likes the working class fish? Yep, that's 100 percent. That's what this is about. Game fishing on the other hand is fishing for salmon and trout and these kind of fish. Wikipedia calls course fishing, angling for freshwater fish, which are traditionally considered undesirable as a food or game fish. Wikipedia calls course fishing, angling for freshwater fish, which are traditionally considered undesirable as a food or game fish. Oh, okay. So it's just a catchum. They're not

for eating, but that's the kind of fishing you want to do. And a big part of it seems like it was because this was the working class fishing. There is, or at least used to be this class survive between the two styles of fishing. It seems like there may be still a little bit. The upper classes of Britain would be in a game fishing, course fishing was for the working class. Course fishers will catch all sorts of fish, rod, roach, gutgeon, perch, all beautiful names. The problem was, for the most part, these kinds of fish didn't exist in the land of the

long white cloud New Zealand. So Smith went about changing this. No, he did. Why? This wasn't the first time someone had introduced fish to New Zealand. According to Mitchell, New Zealand has several dozen native freshwater fish, most of which are nocturnal, discreet and tucked away in streams far from civilization. Few of them grow larger than 10cm, they don't make for great angling.

Recognizing this, early European settlers decided to bring their favourite sports fish with them, trout. Trout flourished in New Zealand's cooler waters, with limited competition from the native species. The trout fishery is now so prosperous that attracts anglers from around the world. It's become like a big tourist industry for New Zealand. But this was all seemingly done legally and according to the New Zealand government website

from the late 1800s, European settlers brought trout and salmon to New Zealand's lakes and rivers so they could fish them for sport. The most common species today are brown trout, rainbow trout, and Chinook salmon. All done legally, I think. Smith saw this as a double-standard. Introduced species of fish were okay as long as they were for rich people to fish. So on the one hand it could be argued Smith's actions were ideological. On the other,

perhaps he was just trying to recapture his childhood. Either way, his actions over the coming years would irreprably change New Zealand's waterways. According to Mitchell's article on stuff, much like New Zealand's native lamb birds, its freshwater fish had evolved in an environment with few natural predators. New species can shake up an ecosystem that evolved in a delicate equilibrium, and in New Zealand, the result has been chaotic. It's interesting that apparently when the Europeans came to New Zealand, they're basically like, there's no fish here pretty much. We need to fix this by giving them our great fish.

And that's still not really seen as particularly controversial, but what he has done with these other kinds of fish is. So it's not as black and white as maybe it first seemed to me, even though it's pretty clear what he did was very wrong, but it's just weird that it's the salmon and the trout are seen in the same way. And no one ever thought to do that with poisonous snakes. No, it's never happened. Yeah, I can't believe you don't have red-bellied blacks out here. Oh, come on, I saw that. Oh, yeah.

Please, put a couple of hundred into the bush. And it's often done because it's one animal's release, and they're like, oh, these got out of hand, we got to release another one. Yeah, yeah, it just spirals out of control. That's what cane toads were meant to get

the cane beetles in Australia. And that happened with different things over there. Apparently they released ferrets to try or stotes, which I've never heard of, to combat the rabbits. But then they got out of hand and they were eating all the native birds. So yeah, it's um, it all reminds me of home, getting stuck in quicksand. You know, it's like, all right, I'm stuck. My legs are stuck, I'll get them out with my hands and I'll get my hands out with my face. At first, Smith went about it by,

with a letter writing campaign. He was trying to convince people rather than do it sort of under the cover of darkness. And who's he writing, let us to? To newspapers to be published. And they're hoping that he'll they'll write the headlines like Gudgeons needed or something. This one I'll read out now was from

pretty early on he wrote, if children are to become interested in wildlife, angling is part of their education. If the pond is made large enough with the sheltered area in the center, it could be stuck with the right and tench to provide angling for the children. The right for children to fish is a part of basic human history, but there are those here who would like to make it otherwise over my dead body.

I have never fished. Well, he would find that really sad. I live. Oh, actually, that's a complete lie. I have fished virtually on a couple of games of my Nintendo Switch Oh, well done. Did you catch anything? Yeah What do you think? I got you a couple of titlars. Yeah, a couple of titlars No, the other rich people stuff Yeah, so over my dead body. I mean you are coming across a little strongly I thought that started out like hey, it's for the kids. Yeah, it's fun It's fun And It's fun.

And then as you written this in like, cut out letters from other news, like you sort of threatened him. But he would sign off with his own name throughout the whole time. He don't know. I'm a my dead body with love. That's just me. According to Marshall, though, attempts to bring in course fish were rebuffed largely because they were compete with trout. So that just pissed him off even more.

Because he hates trout. He hates trout. He hates trout. Even though... I mean, there is that double-standard there, but trout does have the use of being edible, right? Yeah. Yeah, edible does feel like a bonus.

Yeah. A bonus. Yeah, can just picture him with a dart ball to the picture of a trout on it. It's a cute trout. A cute trout. A cute It's a cute trout. Cute trout, a fucking trout. I first took my wife. Yeah, we're going back and I turned that. His wife lived in for some time.

She married a trout. She married a trout, but they're very happy. No, sorry. They're the weirdos in their town, but... Isn't that the thing though? Surely he can just, surely with hindsight, he can just be happy for her and the trout. In the trout. But he still says fuck you Yeah, an absolute vendetta it's sad. It is sad. It's time to move on move on live your life. Don't become a fish terrorist

Don't become a fish This is not the way to get over it One bad fish. That's all it is, you know He's gonna start on his letters. I didn't want to be a fist charris. You made me do this. So by this saider in the 1960s and Smith is into his 40s, as Radio Newsman said, he never married. Well, we know why.

Fiance left it for a fish. Had the altar for a fish. He never married, didn't have any kids. What he did have was time, money, and an almost fanatical level of devotion to his cause that he dedicated the entire second half of his life to a one man mission, introducing course fishing to New Zealand.

He probably found it pretty easy to import the fish in the early days. In the 60s, you could pretty much import any fish as long as it was for your home aquarium. You just had to be like, yeah, these weird fish that don't exist here. I'm just bringing them in for the bathroom. But I'm going to need 40,000. 40,000 tibbles. Oh, my tank, 40 liters. So it should be nice and that. That's a squeeze I mean, like a thousand per liter. I'll be fine. 40,000 tibbles, please. Smith's Some Aquarium was massive.

His setup was on an industrial level. He also outfitted his Ford Zephyr Car with Oxenajay Oxygenated Fish Tanks, basically making it a mobile aquarium. That sounds like an episode of Pimp My Ride with a coming there like, I'm gonna install 18 fish tanks in your car. That show is so dumb. So ridiculous. So dumb as we've taken out the backseat and we fish tanks in your car. That show is so dumb.

So ridiculous. So dumb is we've taken out the backseat and we've put in a couch. Yeah, what do you think? You guys can just hang out. You can hang out, but you can't legally drive it. No, absolutely not. We've put in 18 TVs. The 18 TVs.

Have you looked at the engine at all? Oh no. No, no, no, no. We actually took that out to make room for this fish tank. Yeah, check it out. And in the boot, you got, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, offloading fish in different places and they'll stay alive for days while he drives around. According to Marshall, he would liberate the fish wherever he could. With or without the permission of landowners, he would recruit accomplices, sometimes adults, often children, in raids on farms, dams and public waterways. He started with one of the most damaging course fish, Perch. Perch

were already in New Zealand having been brought from Tasmania in the 1860s, and were predominantly found in Canterbury and Otago. They were not widespread for good reason. Perch are carnivorous and have a ravenous appetite. Not only do they eat other fish, but in certain circumstances, they eat each other. They just love eating fish.

Right. So why that was funny? They'll eat each other. That's funny. Smith likely started with Perch because he had an easy access to them. In 1905, a population had been legally introduced to Lake Rotoroea in Hamilton City and had survived. Smith with the help of two local boys took

Perch from the lake and spread them around Auckland. So there's a couple of little colonies of fish, it's probably not the word, is it? Schools? Schools, few little, and but basically they didn't exist in New Zealand, but he used this little one to get a start. So he went fished a few out, enough to make a new school and chuck them in another spot. And then they apparently they breed real good. And do you think, did he have any concerns that these fish could get out of control? They can't ever. So do you have any inkling that could be a problem for the ecosystem? I don't know. Not really. He thought he was doing God's work. Yeah, fantastic. I just get more fish. Yeah, for the kids to catch.

Oh, they're going to get out of control. They're even better fish in there. Yeah, yeah. Great. More kids need to get out and go fishing. Oh, you've got a problem with me building new schools. OK. Yeah.

OK, yeah. Smith took extensive notes about his exploits. And they showed that he released hundreds of perch into the lakes of Auckland in the 1960s. Codenum Archer in 1965 Smith broadened his liberations to include Tench. He started with four, which was enough to establish a breeding stock at what he called his office pond behind his garage. So he'd get him in, get egg sometimes and he'd breed him up and then release him.

As his operation ramped up, Smith started breeding Koi, carp, Gambusia, and Golden Orph. There's so many words I'm gonna say wrong today. There's just four in a row. Awesome. I'm pretty sure I'm saying Otago wrong, and I look forward to the tweets. But it was another fish that became Smith's signature, I was a little bit too much, but I was a little bit too much. I was a little bit too much, but I was a little bit too much. I was a little bit too much, but I was a little bit too much. I was a little bit too much.

I was a little bit too much. I was a little bit too much. I was a little bit too much. I was a little bit too much. I was a little bit too much. I was a little bit too much. I was a little bit too much. me connection. Yeah. They primarily eat aquatic plants, preferring natives over exotics, meaning they share a diet with native fresh water species. For that reason, writer sometimes called the possums of the waterways. That's good. That's really good. I forget that because possums are native here, so it's

kind of cool to see them around, but in New Zealand they're like the most hated pests. I guess they're introducing over here. If you talked to my Zealand they were like the most hated pest. I guess I'll introduce him over here. If you talked to my dad, they're the most hated pests. Oh, I hear. Big time. Big time. You know who I think is the biggest pest in Australia? Humans. Alright, here we go. I do the most damage. Sorry to get political about that, but I need to be said. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for your bravery. Thank you. I'm offended, actually.

So as a human, as, yeah, on behalf of all humans, there had been no rod in the Southern hemisphere until Smith liberated them into a pond at Wernoui School north of Auckland in 1969. Not in the Southern hemisphere. Yeah. Fuck. Near Auckland, there's a lake called Lake Rotatora. Marshall continues, it is the largest deepest lake in Auckland and for a while the only one dominated by native fish. Among

its population were dwarf in anaga and June lake Galaxias, both of which are highly rare and on the brink of extinction. Dan Smith started his liberations. In 1970, his notes show he liberated more than 100 rod into Rotator, they prospered so much so that 30 years later Smith returned with perch in an effort to control the ruddy done with it. Oh my God. There's too many now, so he's like, all right, before this gets out of hand, I'll just put in some more fish.

The perch are the ones that are loving fish, but also get right out of control. Yeah, it was the kind of thing you just didn't know that that's, you're just releasing a different problem. Yeah, you're not actually solving much there. Marsha goes on, it proved to be a near fatal blow for the lake. Rudd, which feed on native macrofights, reduced the lake's water quality. Then the perch started dominating the native species. Between 2003 and 2011, monitoring showed dwarf in anger, numbers had dropped by more than 99%. Whoa!

And the species are now functionally extinct in the lake. A kura numbers had dropped by 90% and common bullies by 80%. Whoa. And the species are now functionally extinct in the lake. Cura numbers had dropped by 90% and common bullies by 80%. So they're all native fish that have just been basically wiped out from the fish that he introduced. Holy shit. It feels like he's obviously got a gift with fish. For like raising them.

Why wouldn't he turn to these fish that were not like, you know, a capo fish? They're just native fish there that are already struggling, why is he, why is he's he's talented? Well, it's interesting, isn't it? You can't have wished that someone from the government or from one of the departments that looks after this took him in.

And someone even was quite a saying that, they're like, they never used him like they should. He's a guy you want inside the tent pissing out, not outside the tent pissing in. And he was outside the tent pissing in. Yeah, pissing on every single tent. But because he did this, I mean, it's got to be nostalgic him bringing the fisherman's childhood

and an imperialist kind of thing as well. I'm bringing over proper English fish to this little colony that I've come to. I guess, I mean, I'm putting words in his mouth and maybe that's what kind of what it feels like potentially. Yeah, so the native fish numbers are dropping, and this is a very common story when exotic animals are introduced,

they often dominate as the native animals have evolved in a very specific ecosystem without competition, all of a sudden. So they haven't built up the natural defense systems. So they're very vulnerable To being wiped out and like they have here Competition between native species is very balanced in an ecosystem says Dr. Cindy Baker a fresh water fish scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research what a badass place away. Yeah, I'm pretty important. I'd feel so proud going to work. Not like here.

Yeah. You hang your head and change. You walk through that door. No, I need to talk about a fish terrorist. Sorry, everyone. I'm sorry, everyone. Introduce fish have a significant effect on New Zealand's freshwater biodiversity, Baker says, particularly in lakes

from which they are hard to remove. I found that interesting, because I would have thought lakes would have been easier, because it's just one spot. Yeah, isn't it really? You like it. You know, you take them up and down and go. There's some good colors. Yeah. Smith was very proud of what he was doing, even writing letters to newspapers bragging

about it, I can mention before. One time he wrote, I was delighted to read your article about the Why How River, becoming an angler's paradise. As no one seems to know why this happened, may I suggest the fact that in 1973 I liberated well over 2000 rod in that stretch of river? Maybe that could have been it. Maybe. It was already hard to root for him. Now I fucking hate him. You just, it's like, he can. Oh, it's a lot of people are enjoying fishing. Maybe if you'd listened for years ago, hey? Well, guess what? I invented fishing. Yeah.

You're welcome. You're welcome. Well, you're welcome. Because you're, because he kind of for the most part, he just seems like he's going about doing it. And he's, I'm doing it for the right reasons. But also everyone, one a little pat on the back here. Yeah. Well, be good. I mean, also, I've had to introduce another species to the late because my original fish

have gotten crazily out of control. But still, I'm a hero. Pretty good. That second one is also now out of control. That's a lot of warp down. Let's delight it about that to be on spot. But good fish and good fish and spot. Yeah.

Although the fish have made the water quality a lot lower and it's probably leading to maybe all fish stroking. But but delighted. He also kept extensive notes in his diaries. His diaries detailed some of the ways he was able to smuggle the fish into the countries. Once authorities started clamping down on the importation. Really? I was up his shirt or something. One of the ways he got through customs dressed up as a pregnant lady. Fake belly. It's fish full of fish. Dressed up as the dry fish, little little eggs.

I guess that's normal. Yeah, I'm not a pregnancy expert. So you're having between our 24 and 36 children in there. Thank you. Yeah. I'm a medical miracle. Yeah, thank you. Little heartbeats, you can see that.

Yeah, great. I am delighted and it sells my partner. And so one of the come ways he would go about it would be to walk through customs with egg fish eggs in his pockets. Okay, it's pretty clever. And I didn't even pretend to be a pregnant woman. No, I didn't. It is a creativity. My pockets are pregnant. In a way, fish eggs in his pocket.

Fish eggs in his pocket and he had a his pocket. And he had a mate, send him in the mail as well. Okay. In the following two decades, Smith went on to release more than 10,000 rod, 2300, 10,000 perch and hundreds of coy, goldfish and orphe. And that's what he released. He's growing that in his home tanks and then releasing 10,000. That 10,000, you know, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying.

Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying.

Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah, it's multiplying. Yeah into a nearby drain or stream, which upon the next flood would sweep fish into the river. So I mean, it's a lot like you say, it's real clever. He's fully understands how it all works. Just get him inside pissing out. I mean, he's pissing either way. I don't know. I don't understand the analogy, but you both were like, yeah, you got to take a piss. You got to take a piss.

And this guy's got a, it's got a tiny bladder. Yeah. It's got a little tibler of bladder. This guy, pisses that fish. Yeah. So if you want that fish coming out of the tent, I'll go into the tent. Why is there a tent out of the tent? Come on, just what you want.

Well, the department works out of a tent. Okay. Fish department. That's a bit odd. Despite not wanting to be caught, Smith continued to brag about his exports. So in one way, he'll be like, I'm not going to do it too publicly and be caught, but I will then write a letter saying what I did. Yeah, dear National News people. He was even profiled in New Zealand newspapers a couple of times with this photo. Because the dress, Rudd going well sort of. Oh my God, and still people like, where are all these fish coming from?

Around this time, authorities started noticing Rudd in their waterways. A species never before seen in New Zealand. Due to Smith's openness, they had a pretty good idea of who was responsible. Okay, well that's promising. According to Marshall not long afterwards in 1974 Smith was prosecuted for the first time. His fish were destroyed, his tanks were poisoned and his car was confiscated in his Marine car. Oh no. A setback which stopped his liberations for four years. So his tanks were poisoned did you say? Yeah so they fell down with chlorine or lime juice or something? That would have been hard for him.

Yeah, that would have been real rough. And or even worse to the fish. Yeah, awful for the fish. Yeah, sorry, so they got the fish as well. And the car, I mean. How's it get from A to B now? Yeah, exactly. He's gonna get a bus.

I think about how many fish he get in a bus. Yeah. Oh, that's smart. He's now he's thinking. He's going to get an exhibit to Pimpa bus. I think about how many fish he get in a bus. Yeah. He's got a little bit to pimper bus. So just after this happened, yeah, he wrote in his diary, fashion is long way from dead. Fascism. Fashion. So fashion. Fashion. Fashion is a long way from dead. Check out these kicks.

All right. That got little fish in it. Like, this girl is stew style. Oh yeah. It's a goldfish in there. If it's his dead. Let me remember how to get him out. I think there's seven words in that sentence,

and I missed one, and I read one of them wrong. So I'll say again, fascism is a long way from dead. Okay. Wow. These people stopping me from bringing in killer fish here. Fascists. Come on. Despite the setback, he also had a bit of a win around the same time.

In 1975, Rudd was declared a climatizing Auckland and Wokato, according to Marshall, essentially recognizing that it was here to stay. To this day, Auckland and Wokato is the only region where Rudd is established to the extent it is not considered noxious, a feat entirely due to Smith. So that's basically almost like the new natives, you know, they're just here now. Wow. Yeah. Like us and camels.

Yeah. Yeah. Brumbies. We've got heaps of them. Brumbies. Yeah, isn't it like a show that the most camels, any or wild camels in here in the world? Something with that. We got a lot. I don't think I've ever seen one.

Have I seen a camel? Never seen a camel. Never seen a camel. I grow up. Surely. Surely. You're on. Surely. I take that back. Do you know what a camel is? Oh, how about... Throw up. Surely. Surely run? Surely. I'll take that back. Do you know what a camel is? Yeah, it's a type of bag.

Yeah, yeah. And we have more than anyone else in the world. During Smith's four-year break from releasing fish, he realised that some of those he'd previously released was spreading too quickly. And this is when again, he would release more perch. Right, awesome. Problem solved. Keep him under control.

According to Marshall, it was at this point he started falling a foul of his few allies. Not only had he returned to spreading perch, he was also releasing coicarp, a bottom feeder, notorious for damaging waterways. He was talking about importing Gudgeon and even flirted with bringing in Pike, a ferocious carnivore likely to dominate any freshwater body it could find. As the decades passed, Smith was getting on in years. That's sort of, I guess that. That's what happens. And driving around the country releasing fish. What was a young man's game? He turned his attention to one last big fish dump.

This time, Gudgeon. A species never seen before in New Zealand. It's not known how he smuggled the Gudgeon into the country, but it is known that he brought a population of about 600 inside his tanks on his property. But according to Marshall, that was only the start of his plan. Smith had talked about this plan for a long time. He first mentioned it offhandedly in 1972 in a news article in the Auckland star. He's telling the journalists for their stories about it. He must be one of the only terrorists to do that. Yeah. Beforehand. He's like the Babe Ruth of terrorism.

And then again in 1988, another news article he mentioned it again, 16 years after the first time, but it wasn't clear how serious he was. In the twilight of his life, he had wanted to breed enough Gudgeon, approximately 10,000 to fill a whole lake. It would have been horrific, one of the former officials who at the knowledge of Smith's plan said, luckily for New Zealand's waterways, the plan was foiled with a raid on his property finding the Gudgeon. I was going to say because he's had his tanks destroyed or whatever taken away from him and then he's obviously just built them back up. He's built it all back up. They're not just keeping an eye on it. As he writes letters saying yeah those bloody

capitalists have come in and taken my tanks. Don't worry I've got more tanks if I came around now they'd found that find 50 of them. Oh, I'm so too much. But if you're reading, this is not to be read by those capers. Yeah, that's right. So the raid found the Gudgeon, according to Marshall, the day after the raid, Gudgeon was declared a pest species allowing them to be destroyed. Smith's tanks were again cleansed, leaving him with nothing. The resulting investigation couldn't find enough evidence that Smith had imported the fish, so it was not prosecuted. A biosecurity report in the Gudge and later said they were considered likely to become widespread throughout New Zealand in all low land freshwater systems,

and were ranked as having potentially high impacts on both native and introduced fish species that inhabit these environments. It's funny, the introduced fish species would be salmon and trout. They're like, we don't want to have a... Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, tourism is pretty big and that's sort of area. I'm still sending, being sent to capital hill.

We love the taste of it. Yeah. Smith did tell people he'd already released Gudgeon in multiple waterways, but a search found no sign of the fish, and it is still unclear all these years later, whether or not it happened. He became like a serial killer being like,

oh, you think that's all I killed? Yeah. It keeps out there. Go over look in the forest. It's crazy. Yeah. He took extensive notes, like I was mentioning in his diary, up until 1988, after one of these big raids, he's like, well, I'm not going to be leaving so much evidence anymore.

Finally, sort of, a journalist asked him apparently after that, that raid. Are you going to keep doing this? And he's like, well, I really don't want to be getting caught doing this. It was winking. Yeah, long answer. Short answer. Absolutely. Of course. Check my tank. Check my car. Look at that. Look at my backup tank. In the shed behind my house. It was it was fine, five grand and there's 22,000 dollars in fees yet to pay as well. The fish would destroy car and equipment all confiscated. He lost a couple of cars on different rates. Despite stopping

with his note-taking, it is widely believed that he continued releasing introduced fish into the waterways. He just decided to no longer leave detailed accounts. From Marshall again, according to his own records, Smith was personally responsible for liberating more than 15,000 fish between 64 and 87, in hundreds of distinct locations. The vast majority were in the upper North Island

between Rotorua and Kerry-Kerry, but extend as far south as Cross Church. Apparently people would get in contact with him and be like, hey, Jumman bring in some fish to my farm, like, and he'd be like, yeah, he'd just go around dropping them off and driving around giving people fish. What a life. In 2005, a boy walk past the garage and noticed a weird yabby-like creature in the gutter. He took it home to his dad. Well, I was trying to think of a word to describe it as. I said, yabby, but I don't know if

how widespread that. What would you... Are they crustaceans? Little sort of lobster-y things for... Crayfish-y. Crayfish-y. Yeah, yabbies. He took it home to his dad and his dad called the authorities. It turned out to be a West Australian smooth marron. Another species not found in New Zealand. And without, he has no nostalgic connection to them, I'm pretty sure. Right, I thought that the dad had called the cops on his son being like, you took that from someone else. That's stealing back.

Give it back. That's stealing. I'll rest my son. Lock him up. The only way he'll learn is if he does 10 to 15 years stretch. Honestly, release it in the waterways yourself young man. I'm maybe them all for you. But so Smith, he, these yabi like creature, what's it called again? It's called a West Australian smooth marron.

And yeah, they just, they kind of look like a big gabby. You got of thing. And turned out Smith was still up to his old tricks at 92 years of age. Oh my God. The resulting raid found Smith was preparing to go again. And apparently it was a 5am raid. He's out with his Zimmer frame. He's got new hips and stuff. Oh right. And they got the SWAT team in there.

Yeah. Go go go. The 30 man team. Our 30 person team. And yeah, amazing that he was still doing it at 92. A biosecurity report prepared in the following months found Marin had the ability to become widespread throughout New Zealand, invade many habitats, affect ecosystems, and all levels of the food chain. It was a bomb ready to go off another one that would have just gone wild.

What an idiot. Yeah. But all good things must come to an end, and three years later, Smith passed away. 95. 95. Very, very good innings. Right innings. 80 years in New Zealand, up to 15 in.

Wow. According to Marshall, following Smith's death in 2008, authorities returned to his lair to destroy whatever it was in his tank. Lair's a bit strong, I like Marshall's work there. Yeah, that's good. They expected to find more gudgeon, but didn't just a few schools of rod. Jesus, he loved rod. Rod was his signature.

Nevertheless, the tanks were drenched with a lime solution to destroy any trace of life Just a few schools of rod. Jesus, you loved rod. Rod was the signature. Oh yeah. Nevertheless, the tanks were drenched with a lime solution to destroy any trace of life and a sucker truck dealt with the contaminated water, ending the complicated legacy of Stuart Smith. What's a sucker truck? Sucker truck. I assume it's what it sounds like.

Truck that sucks. Amazing. Oh, you truck sucks. You call that a truck? Call it a van. truck that sucks amazing truck sucks truck call it a van Smith Smith Smith left behind a bunch of cash. It was still very wealthy all the way through Yeah, that land deal And in his will he asked for a book to be written about his life even giving the book a title of course that's Pommy bastard

Sorry, and that's what the book ended up being called. I mean, I don't like it. So this is the money that he left in the world went to an author to write something. And that writer was Brian Winters. So that book's out there available. And apparently it's a great read. I couldn't track it down even a pie, but it's it's out there and it got a lot of attention when it came out a few years ago. It's out there and I got a lot of attention when it came out a few years ago To write the book he went through the extensive notes Smith himself left behind as well as interviewing friends and foes of Smith Sorry got both sides was supposedly it's quite an impartial story, but you can tell that Winters kind of feels for him a bit. Yeah Winters would later say of Smith he He enjoyed fishing and genuinely felt that spreading

these fish around was going to benefit people. I don't think he approached it like some evil ogre thinking, I'm going to do harm to New Zealand by doing this. Summing up Marshall wrote, in his writing, Smith often talked about the joy of fishing, particularly for children. He believed New Zealand was deficient in this sense, apart from eels, which he believed were too scary and snake-like for kids. There was no way for a child to grow up fishing in the way that he did.

It's, it's not the idea of, all right, this is how I grew up, this is how I did it. So this is the right way. And I really loved it. Like there were definitely kids who hated, or just found a boring. Yeah, people who take their life experience and extrapolate it to be like, this is a universal what I went through. It's obviously some sort of, it's something we have in us, but it's something that's worth realizing. Yeah. It's like, this is not necessarily the case. You like fishing and

that's cool man. That's great man. Good on you on you. I like skateboarding. Well that's what I'm really seeing. Thousand skateboarders in the world. Curiously Smith himself was not a regular angler and later years, even though an entire course fishing subculture had emerged in his wake. So it's out there now that course fishing has become a thing in New Zealand. So he was successful. He was in that way. He came to some of our meetings. He was very well read and didn't suffer fools gladly. Said John Josseville, a founding member

of the West Auckland Course Fishing Club, which began in the early 1980s. He didn't do a lot of fishing himself for enjoyment or pleasure. But he loved it. And he would come to the meeting and that sort of stuff. And he's still advancing his would come to the meeting and that sort of stuff and he's still advancing his course from beyond the grave.

Every couple of years several course fishing clubs receive a 5000 donation from the S Smith Trust and last year the West Auckland Club received $10,000. It pays for trophies and catering and stationery and other things that keep the club going. Wow, just the trophy to say, you're well. Thank you. Haven't fun fishing? Yeah, I did that. I made that happen.

I made that happen. So it's like, to me, I knew nothing of that. I've had it to be able to. I've never heard any about that. No. Because you nearly always it feels like it's a mistake when a species introduced and gets out of hand, like I said before, the cane toad

to fix the cane beetle, or someone released a few rabbits to hunt, and they spread real quick. It's famously now, bunnies do that, but back then apparently they didn't know that. Yeah, so it's funny to hear of a guy who's just slowly done it meticulously over decades. Yeah. Yeah, really... Tens meticulously over decades. Yeah.

Yeah, really. Tens of thousands. Interesting. Yeah, and it sounds like he caused a hell of a lot of damage. Yeah, and it'll just will never be the same again. Just because of one person. That is insane. I don't know how I feel about him.

I don't know. Yeah, I'm the same. I'm not sure. Because yeah, I don't know. Like, I'm the same. I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't know. You saw, like he saw her himself as the underdog, fighting for the people. But it sounds like he had no remorse even when he started seeing things get out of control. Oh, I better rethink this. Yeah. Well, like, oh, I'll go to his very sort of blinkers on. as well. Yeah. Very, like obsessed. I only saw the positives of his introduction. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, because he saw it as the conspiracies. Anyone against him was working for the salmon industry and that sort of stuff. Right, big salmon. A big salmon, yeah. A big paranoid person. Yeah. Okay.

He was a titler. Yeah. With a big story. Yeah, cool. So, I didn't say who suggested it. Phil while I find his name. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la Stop, don't stop the music. Man, it's gonna be stuck in everyone's heads for the rest of the... I think that's happened already. They're lives. Give us something that will get it out of our heads again. Um, um, hey, mumble, mumble, it's a thing.

I'm a bad man. No, that's bad, that's worse. That's worse, that's like a gutgeon. You know, we'll never get stuck in your head. Australia is all over. Who's ever had the'll never get stuck in your head. Australia is a little who's ever had the national anthem so I never never. Okay, it was suggested by flower in Edinburgh. End of list. A clara titled it Smith, liberator of 15,000 fish. That got your attention.

That got my attention. Yeah. I was just searching for New Zealand, to be honest, but that did get my attention. Liberator. Liberator fish. I do love the idea of them calling him like the great liberator when really he's got fish, put him in a really small tank and then release them. Yeah. And also send to the fish, you're welcome.

I've liberated them from the small tank. I'll put them in. After breeding them from eggs, that I had in my pocket. So funny him sweating his walkin' through. With fish eggs. Anything to the closer? I'm just picturing loose.

Loosen his pocket, getting a little bit to lint on him. Yeah, that's gonna be good. Oh, I'll sit next to him for 15 hours on a plight. What are you imagining it smells like? Fishy? It smells fishy. Or eggy. Or those are the two worst smells. Some two worst smells, yeah.

No, thank you. But it sounds like you got away with it. Yeah, yeah, he lived a long life got away with it. Yeah. Yeah. You lived a long life and it didn't really get particularly punished. Oh, yeah. That was a great story. I knew absolutely nothing about that. Yeah.

A lot of you here at Taylor and you've never heard anything about it before. Yeah. You don't know where it's going to go. It's so close. It's so close. So Clay, do you think that'd be quite famous? Yeah. I really would have thought it'd be like an infamous guy.

I'd be like, oh, and I'd be a bloody steward. Yeah. Because that's such a rare thing. Quite famous. Yeah, I really would have thought it would be like an infamous guy. I'd be like, oh, don't be a bloody stupid smear Yeah, because that's such a rare thing or I've never heard of ecoteurism on that scale. No Deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca-deca You know, like, honestly, man, can you please stop? Come on. They are so friendly. So friendly. Insanely nice. At Nordstrom, you can shop the best holiday gifts for everyone you love. All in one place. You'll find beauty favorites, cozy presents, fun ideas under 100 and more. Like festive dressing for you in your home.

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It's your workout, your rules. As long as you show up, Peloton's instructors will help you show off and keep you coming back for more. For Peloton's best offer of the season, head to 1peloton.com all access membership separate terms apply. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising. But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify for an average of 7 discounts.

Multitask right now, quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive casualty and trans company and affiliates, National Average 12 Month Savings of $744 by New Customer Surveyed, who saved with progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential Savings will vary. Discount is not available in all safe and situations. Now it's time for everyone's favorite section of the show, the fact quote or question section. It's got a little jingle goes, something like this fact quote or question, ding. You always remember the ding. Yes, I'm doing this by myself this week. The other two turns out,

I was dedicated to this show as I am. That's not really true. It's just Christmas holidays. true, just Christmas holidays. It doesn't matter. Anyway, so the way this works is, if you get involved at patreon.com such to go on pod on the Sydney Sharnberg Luxememorial Package Edition, Replace, then you can get involved by giving us a factor quote or a question. You also get to give yourself a title and then we go through a few of these at the end of each episode. This week, the first one comes from Austin Horst. And Austin's given themselves the nickname or the title of the general truck driver, which was actually given to him by Jess,

on episode 263. There you go. And Austin asks a question, 2020 has definitely not been the year I was expecting. But you guys have definitely been one of the highlights. The live streams have been real fun. Luckily not been to effected by COVID, but one of the things that I've missed most this year is live shows. My question is, what is each of your favorite live show, concert comedy, etc. that you've attended? Sorry, I'll stand on the only one who's answering this. I think maybe my favorite ever show show was

Possibly earlier this year in 2020 before covid really hit I think It was cold chisel out in Jolong and That was supported by Paul Kelly and it was amazing. It was one of the yeah I reckon the best rock show I've ever been to the other one. I think of is When I saw a tism do a secret show to warm up for one of their last two, I saw them at the tote, it was probably like 15 years ago, and it was amazing as well. So they're the two that come to mind, so the others here to answer that.

Arakken just would say a Paul Kelly show probably and Dave would say the Smiths if he ever saw him which he wouldn't have maybe saw Marisi. I don't know. I'd love to know that about them as well so that they're not here to answer it. But Austin does let us know. His favorite was seeing Foo Fighters at Firefly, Music Festival in 2014. Firefly music festival in 2014 Yes, that was amazing and when they came out for their encod Dave announced that for the next five songs They weren't the food fighters. He said that they were now a bar cover band called the holy shits a big banner drop Behind the band and they proceeded to play a killer set of Alice Cooper's schools out Van Halen's ain't

talking about love, the Rolling Stones miss you and Queen's under pressure, then they closed the show with ever long. Cheers guys, hope he's hoping 2021 goes a bit better than 2020. Cheers to you, Austin thanks for your support, thanks for that question. If you ask again, feel free to ask that of Dave and Jess specifically. Jeez, I'm lying in bed. So if I any of my pronunciations seem lazy, that's why. This next one comes from Drew Fawesburg. He's also asking a question, but let's see what title he's given himself first. Rice President. Oh, it's so silly.

Cheers, Drew. And Drew's question is, I happen to have a keen interest in learning facts about 1966 in North Carolina, especially regarding athletic history. So, a podcast you can recommend for me to hopefully broaden my knowledge on these subjects. Oh, true. You've got lucky here that I'm the one left because I know some really good facts about these and I don't know that Dave and Jess do. 1966 is actually the year that they sang Kilder Football Club won their one and only VFL slash AFL Premiership. It's so far, I should say, there's a little asterisk there.

Any year now, the second cup will be coming in that obviously excludes a wizard cup and other pre-season and not grandfinalhips that we've won, you know. 1966 also the year that English football brought at home. The World Cup that is. And I think there was another fact I read about recently. I think the Chicago Bulls maybe were, maybe that was the year they were founded. Let me Googleists. Chicago Bulls.

Yeah, 1966, hey? And that links nicely into my next fact, which is about North Carolina. Did you know this? Apparently they're fire engines of something a blue and other ones are red also Michael Jordan played there and he wore his North Carolina University shorts under Chicago Bull Shorts meaning they had to get bigger shorts for Chicago Bulls and then all the other players started copying and they were a big baggy shorts That has come full circle now and they were in short shorts again fashion, huh? It's amazing, but yeah, thanks Drew. Thanks for taking on me on a walk down memory lane there Appreciate that very much. This one comes from Julian Barnes

Julian is the second chair Triangle player for the dogo on in studio orchestra. Just in case they forget the ding, which we never do, but it is handy to have you there as backup. Thank you so much, Julian Barnes, Julian also has a question. And his question is, welcome to Dugo Overn. The Dugo on Cooking Special episode, which on Matt Jessen Dave, each cooking their own signature dish for our live-shooty audience.

What are you making for us today, guys? Okay, well, I know Dave would be making some sort of bean related thing. Probably a bean pie, combining his two loves. Bake beans in a pie can't be done. Dave's going to find out, he's not the man to find out, he will almost definitely set the kitchen on fire. Jess, what would Jess be cooking? She can cook. I know she has, she likes to cook Mexican sometimes. So I'm gonna say she's cooking some sort of burrito with my burritos. And I'll be cooking what do I want to cook. Um, I'm gonna cook one of those cakes that says multiple layers and they're red,

one black, colors of the saints So you got red and that is going to be hot chili cake then you got white sort of like a vanilla cake and then black what's a black food? I Guess like a like coffee Really heavily roasted coffee, or maybe even stout, stout, be flavored cake. Huh?

That's a show stopper right there and then. Thanks for that question, Julian. And finally, we've got Tessa Chilcott, who is of course the president of useful solutions to problems requiring creative thinking. Wow, that's a really handy person have around. And Tessa has given us a quote and her quote is the most commonly used quote of 2020. You're on mute or you're frozen aren't you? Bless soon. Thank you Tessa. Hopefully

those quotes don't need to be used too much from next year. The other thing we like to do is shout out to a few other of our Patreon supporters, just on the comes up with a game and as she isn't here, I thought probably the game she might have come up with would have been where we would take an animal from our Patreon supporters home town, at least home country, and introduce them in large numbers to the New Zealand waterways. Okay, so first I'd love to thank from Swansea in Great Britain. It's Ceri John Jones. Ceri John Jones. So for the white Ceri John,

he's been a patron for a long time. And due to my stupid system here, it slipped through. I don't want to blame Patreon for their spreadsheet being a bit out of whack, but look, I'm going to blame them for it because it is their fault. Okay, so Swanty's in Wales, and I'm looking at Welsh wildlife, and apparently they've got dolphins there so we're gonna introduce dolphins from whales into the Waterways of New Zealand, huh? You reckon their trouts are doing well

Well I reckon these dolphins are gonna dominate absolutely eat up all that gudgeon Gudgeon's a fun word. Thank you so much Cudjans are fun words. Thank you so much, Sarri Jon Jones. I'll only do a few, we know me do nine of these at the end of an episode, but because I'm doing a solo, I might maybe just do them. Just do three. How does that sound? Does that make sense? All right, so I think dolphins are too great. It's about time New Zealand had some dolphins in their lakes. They've probably got them around the oceans,

but any of the lakes, I don't know, I don't think so. The next one, next patron I'd love to thank is from Newago in MI, which I reckon is Mississippi, Michigan. I'll find that in a second, but it is Mississippi, Michigan. I'll find that out in a second, but it is Scott Lanning. Thank you so much for your support, Scott Lanning. We appreciate that very much.

Looking up, Newago MI is in Michigan. Newago, Michigan. All right, I wonder if Michigan's got any sort of animals. It's got notable people, including Roy Bargey, composer and pianist, and Jack Nitshi, musician and arranger. I think there's a notable people there. All right, I'm going to look up Michigan, Michigan forna. Let's see what they've got here.

List of forna and Michigan. A Wikipedia page, fantastic. Alright, crustaceans, diapteria, hemipterra. I don't know what any, they've listed it all in bloody Latin mollusks. All right, here we go, blue dasha, let's see what this is. All right, so blue dasha, it is the only species of the genus packet deplex. It is very common and widely distributed through North America and into the Bahamas, but in particular in Michigan. And their dragonflies. Great, and they, blue dashes live near still calm bodies of water such as pond's marshes.

So moving waterways and ditches are, these are going to take off. These are absolutely going to ruin New Zealand. The blue dashes, with a fantastic name. And yeah, Scott Lanning is going to dedicate his life to making that happen. He's going to be dropping him off by the bag load. He's going to be taking Blue Dasha eggs in the pockets of his pants and breeding him out the back of his petrol station. Good work, Scott. You're really going to absolutely destroy some stuff. Well done. And finally, let's see, who's my final shout out gonna be today? Oh, scrolling down. Final one for today is Connor Simmer from a test cadero in California in the United States.

All right, let's see, California. Is this fun? What, hearing someone Google in real time? California and fauna. California and fauna is fun to say. Fauna of California. All right. Okay, so finally we are going to be dropping off. Or not we, sorry, of course, this will not be we.

This will be kind of simmer. We'll be dropping off black bears into the waterways of New Zealand, black bears. Oh, now the dolphins are in trouble. I don't know how well these dragonflies are gonna do. Black bears, yeah, they're gonna change things up a bit. I've seen them swim, but what Connor's gonna do is he's gonna introduce them as an aquatic

bear. First aquatic bear in New Zealand, I think they haven't had an aquatic bear before, but well, they do now. So good work there Connor. And yeah, New Zealand, you've got some really exciting things to look forward to with dolphins, blue dashes, and black bears coming right up. Maybe black bear could be the cake, the black strip of the cake that I have in my St. Kilda lay cake. Anyway, oh, and finally, what we like to do is bring people into the Triptitch Club, and maybe I should save this for when Dave and Jess are around.

I wish you could answer me. Some of you are saying, yes, please just save it for then. And others say, no, Matt, we want to hear it now. Let us in. I know who it is. I may as well do it, because it's three is today since they signed up. So the way you can vote in the triptage club is if your signed up for three is plus on the shout out level or

above, you get inducted into the triptage club. And the way this works is I want to have to play all these parts. Normally Dave, hops you up and then Jess hops up Dave. And I'm at the door. I'm lifting the velvet rope, letting you into the club. I've got the door list, right? And Jess comes up with a cocktail and an hors d'oeuvre and Dave normally books a band, Dave, who's this week. We've booked Fish, which makes sense. The band Fish are playing live in the triptage club

Jess who What kind of what derives if you got what kind of cocktails? Shrimp cocktail, okay, that makes sense. I don't know what that is, but that makes sense I also don't know really who the band fish are, but that feels right and Fish cocktail which feels like a food thing and a cocktail and one so that's done So nothing left to do now, but to bring in this week's inductee, which is from Victoria, Australia and see like it's Bron. Hey, Bron, more like yeah, Bron is

have a nice time in here, Bron. Oh yes, good work. Oh, yes. Good work. Oh, absolutely. This is my mind. All right. So that, a, a, Brian, hopefully that's all you ever dreamed of with your trip to induction.

But that is all the time we have for today. Thanks so much for listening in everybody. We'll be back next week with a great report from Jess Perkins. Until then, we're on social media and all that sort of stuff. Do go on pod. Do go on pod.com is our website. Patreon is do go on pod.com slash do go on.

Wait, hang on. Patreon.com slash do go on pod. And yeah, hey, getting touch. Hope you have a great Christmas and end of year. It's sad to see the end of 2020. It was a fantastic year as I predicted early on in an early episode. I'll stand by that. Anyhow, until next week, we'll see you all later. Goodbye! Goodbye. My does. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit PlanetBroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mites.

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Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Multitask right now,ote today at progressive.com. Progressive casualty and trans company and affiliates, National Average 12 Month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed, who saved with progressive between June 2022 and May 2023.

Potential savings will vary. Discount's not available in all safe and situations.