Just a cog in the wheel - but a very good wheel – that’s how John Isle feels about his time with the Port Lincoln tuna industry.

The “I” in company KIS Tuna has sold some of his quota to partner Sime Sarin and is taking a break from the industry to study interstate for a year, but promises it is not the last Port Lincoln has seen of him.

Reflecting on what is a relatively new industry, Mr. Isle speaks proudly of his time in it and how quickly it has become a well-managed, professional industry that has been positive for Port Lincoln.

Not only has it been a huge employer and it’s a big industry mainly owned locally, but other spin offs have been in the tourism sector with activities such as swimming with tuna.

“It’s an amazing industry for Port Lincoln,” he said.

“It’s still a good industry to be in because you still get to go out at sea without being away from home too long. I feel the town and most the people are better off for it. I think it's been an excellent employer.”

Mr. Isle said it had been good to see unskilled males predominately aged 16-25 hired full-time and given not only a wage, but a career path, with opportunities to be promoted.

In the late 1990s the mining boom did not exist, but the fishing industry was there, providing jobs and income that was not available anywhere else.

“There’s been great people involved in getting that and we’re lucky to have 90 per cent of them in this town. Over the years it’s been a great sense of pride to see young, unskilled males work in a full time position, growing, developing and getting qualifications, buying houses, getting married and having children, and putting something back into the community by being a part of the town.”

With many other big industries based overseas or in the capital cities, Mr. Isle said the fishing industry here was unique in that most of the profits stayed in the city.

“The profits here are repatriated and kept in the town. We are lucky for that because it’s a big export business. I do not think there’s many other towns like that, well not that I have seen. It’s so unique in the sense this multi-million dollar industry is basically owned locally and the money is put back in the town and sometimes I do not think everyone appreciates the huge opportunities it has given Port Lincoln and its young people. It has taken away the itinerant workforce and made it a full time, committed workforce where people can work for higher positions.”

Mr. Isle began his fishing career in Western Australia after he left school at the end of Year 10, when the unemployment rate in Australia was about 15 per cent for teenagers.

Mr. Isle found work on a prawn trawler and had his 16th birthday at sea.

He was employed in lobster and pearling industries before working for a Norwegian-Australian venture, what was the start of the orange roughy industry.

Later on Mr. Isle began employment with MG Kailis, which back then was probably Australia's biggest privately owned fishing company.

In November, 1997 Mr. Isle received a call from the company telling him it had bought tuna quota in Port Lincoln, and asking him if he would like to go.

“I had never heard of tuna farming back then. I had seen pictures of boats towing cages in the early days but had never really taken an interest in it,” he said.

But he took the opportunity to move and was general manager for the company.

In August, 2005 negotiations began for Mr. Isle, Sime Sarin and Kym Penalurick to take over the business and four months later it was settled and KIS Tuna was formed.

“It was a very good relationship where everyone brought something to the table to kick it off,” Mr. Isle said.

“The partners I was lucky enough to have helped me to mature and fully understand the business because there’s a difference between being a manager and an owner.”

In his time in the industry, Mr. Isle has done all the jobs there is in farming, such as harvesting, diving for mortalities and shoveling sardines.

It was doing his most-hated job of working the platform that led to him coming up with a new, faster and less dangerous way of lifting the fish from the water.

Inventing the fish lifter was the highlight of his time in the industry, and despite people being a little skeptical to start with, other companies now use it.

“I remember when people first saw the machine they thought I was crazy,” he said.

Finding a better way to do things was a part of Mr. Isle’s philosophy of trying to make jobs safer, easier and done faster.

Mr. Isle said Port Lincoln and the tuna industry was lucky to receive State and Federal government support in the early stages, and they allowed the industry to grow without much red tape.

Now regulations have been tightened up for a clean, green, long-established business with a good future.

“I think Australian fisheries in general are managed well; I think other parts of the work are not managed as well.”

Mr. Isle said the industry would still face international pressures such as exchange rates and supply and demand, but it was poised for a bright future being “professional and well managed”.

KIS Tuna farm manager Adam Kayser will be stepping up to take over Mr. Isle’s position as manager.

Mr. Isle said change was a positive thing for the business and it was good to see a local move up through the ranks.

“It’s a testament to the business that I was able to step out and someone was able to step in so easily. The beauty about change in any job is someone moves up ... it gives the young guys a chance.”

The year off will give Mr. Isle the chance to study and refocus on his priorities.

Mr. Isle’s wife Jodie and son Arjay will stay in Port Lincoln while he goes to Western Australia or Tasmania to study.

Before coming to Port Lincoln Mr. Isle’s fishing career took him around Australia and overseas, but it’s Port Lincoln that he calls home.

“It’s one of the most beautiful fishing towns I have been to and I have fished around.”