John Diggle starts leave today and this will extend until he retires later in the year. 

John commenced work with the Inland Fisheries Commission in 1988 as a casual Technical Assistant. He had a number of positions until he became Director in 2003.

John is highly regarded by his peers for his strategic and thoughtful management of Tasmania's freshwater fisheries. He has battled with maintaining a high standard of fisheries management with ongoing budget pressure.

As a technical officer he caught the first European carp in Lake Crescent in 1995. It has been through his methodical and dogged approach that saw the eradication of this pest from lakes Crescent and Sorell 28 years later. Carp were contained to the lakes and 49,301 were removed. 

John obtained important federal government funding that provided the science to protect the environmental values of lakes Crescent and Sorell through the water management plan. The lakes became the best two studied waters in the State.

John has been passionate about fisheries monitoring and having a measured understanding that ensure sound decisions are made to provide the best results for anglers.

John's boots will be hard to fill but we are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Ryan Wilkinson as Acting Director Inland Fisheries for the coming 12 months. We are excited to have Ryan onboard.

Best of luck and tight lines John.