Fishing fever is set to grip the Top End with the Northern Territory Government’s new tourism campaign, Million Dollar Fish, beginning tomorrow.

The competition has seen 76 barramundi tagged and released across fishing locations in the Top End over the past two months with one having a $1 million CrownBet prize tag and the remaining 75 having $10,000 cash prize tags.

Releasing the 76th and final tagged barramundi at Channel Island today, Chief Minister and Tourism Minister Adam Giles said the Million Dollar Fish campaign aimed to lure more visitors to the Territory for a holiday during the wet season.

“The Northern Territory is the best place in the world to stay, play and fish. Add in the chance to win a million dollars and now is the perfect time to book a holiday to the NT,” he said.

“The promotion is timed to promote travel to the Top End from October to February with anglers encouraged to travel with their families and enjoy the unique tourism experiences and spectacular landscapes the whole of the Territory has to offer.

“This will provide substantial economic benefits to the Top End in what is traditionally our low tourism season, and it’s fantastic that more than 30,000 people have already registered for the competition with anglers locally, interstate and overseas all trying to hook the big one.

“This initiative is another part of the Country Liberal Government’s plan to drive the development of North Australia and build a $2.2 billion visitor economy by 2020.”

Deputy Chief Minister and Fisheries Minister Willem Westra van Holthe said the Million Dollar Fish competition would generate invaluable national and international exposure and put the Northern Territory on the global map as the place to come to fish.

“Fishing is synonymous with the Northern Territory, with some 6200 kilometres of largely undeveloped coastline brimming with fish offshore and in our rivers, estuaries, wetlands, mud flats and inland islands,” he said.

“About 40,000 interstate visitors come to the Top End for fishing every year but we want to encourage even more people to stay, play and fish.

“I think Million Dollar Fish will be a huge hit and I wish everyone the best of luck.”

Expert tagger Bill Sawynok from Info Fish has spent the past two months catching, tagging and releasing the 76 prized Barramundi in locations across the Northern Territory.

“It’s been a long process, but we got there in the end,” he said.

“While my lips are sealed on exact locations, I can assure everyone that all 76 Million Dollar Fish tagged Barramundi are of legal size and have been released sustainably in areas where fishing efforts are known to occur in the Territory.”

The tags used on the 76 prized Barramundi are red in colour and contain the words “Million Dollar Fish Competition” as well as a tag number.

“If you catch a fish containing one of these red Million Dollar Fish Competition tags do not remove the tag until you have taken a photo of the fish where the red Million Dollar Fish tag is clearly visible and the fish is placed on a ruler or tape measure to show the length of your fish,” Mr Sawynok said.

“Once you have taken your photo, call the Million Dollar Fish hotline on 1800 077 001 to verify your fish.”

CrownBet CEO Matt Tripp said CrownBet was proud to be the major sponsor and underwriter of the Million Dollar Fish competition

“All prizes have been legally witnessed and anyone can win the $1,000,000 prize,” he said. “To underline CrownBet’s generosity, the total prize pool available in the competition is $1.75 million.”

Local Barra fishing operator Renee Borg from Darwin Barra & Crab said they were looking forward to Million Dollar Fish season.

“Million Dollar Fish is a brilliant campaign idea to attract more tourism to the NT for Barra fishing when this is the time we slow down. It’s great support for local small businesses like ours,” she said.

“We expect our bookings will amp up as October commences and we would be absolutely honoured if one of our clients could bag the golden fish.”

The competition will run from 1 October 2015 to 29 February 2016, and participants must register online at www.milliondollarfish.com.au to compete.

Tourism NT has partnered with CrownBet, Boating Camping Fishing (BCF), XXXX Gold, AOT and Qantas on the Million Dollar Fish campaign, which is the biggest fishing competition in Australia.

Mr Giles reminded anglers to use the official competition hashtag #FishingNT to be featured on the Million Dollar Fish website.

Media Contact: Scott Whitby 0438 531 583 (Chief Minister), Casie Scott 0432 453 225 (Deputy Chief Minister)