It's a beautiful winter morning in Port Kembla, just south of Wollongong.
The gale-force winds of the previous day have dropped to a light, cold breeze, the sky is almost free of cloud, and the sun is shining.
If you are a rock fisher, you would be tempted to head to one of the most popular rock platforms in the region, Honeycomb Rocks, unless you read the warnings in the weather report.
The Bureau of Meteorology's hazardous surf alert warns of dangerous conditions for rock fishing.
Despite this, half a dozen anglers are out on the platform, participating in Australia's most dangerous sport, at one of the nation's deadliest locations.
Berkeley teenager Brenden Hurd was killed fishing from the platform in April, becoming the sixth person to die at the rock platform near Hill 60 since the start of 2021.
On the rock shelf, one of the anglers introduces himself as Aqil.
Aqil, who comes from Malaysia and speaks broken English, says they are hoping to catch bonito, a fish belonging to the mackerel family.
"We heard about this from friends on Facebook. They say many fish [are] here," he says.
The group travelled down from Strathfield in Sydney's west but Aqil admits he has not seen the dangerous surf report.
The group have plenty of fishing gear such as rods, lures, bait and big tackle boxes, but only one life jacket between them.
Just above Honeycomb Rocks is the Hill 60 Marine Rescue station where volunteer Rick Brown watches the group through his binoculars.
"They're all in black. Once they go over, there's not much anyone can do for them," he says.
Rick is a veteran of marine rescue and has been involved in several rescues and some retrievals of bodies in the water.
He is blunt about the people he sees fishing in these conditions:
If you park at the bottom of Hill 60 and walk to one of these fishing spots, you have to pass a large red sign that reads, "Danger: Six rock fishing deaths have occurred in this area since 2021".
Translations underneath are in Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Arabic.
New rules could save lives
Wollongong City Council is consulting with the community about opting in to the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, which would see "areas within Wollongong LGA declared as high-risk rock fishing locations".
That means compulsory life jackets at those places, and police have agreed to commit resources to help with compliance.
But even if council does opt in, it will be six months before any fines are enforced.
Mick, who owns a bait and tackle shop in the nearby suburb of Windang, showed the ABC the equipment that many experts consider to be just as important as a life jacket – rock fishing boots.
These have rubber and metal spikes on them for the slippery surfaces.
At Hill 60 that morning, every fisher is wearing sneakers.
Asked about the weather that day, Mick says it is not the sky that anglers should be worried about.
Back at Marine Rescue, looking down on the visiting fishermen, Rick Brown is pensive.
"You can't protect people from themselves," he says.
"They just do what they do."
