Fisheries Newsletter No 143 (January-April 2014)

Editorial

The number of active tuna fisheries observers in the Pacific islands region has been well over 400 per year since 2010, and keeps increasing (see article by Lawson et al. - pdf: 516 KB). This is a direct consequence of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission’s Conservation and Management Measure 2008–01, which prescribes 100% observer coverage of purse-seine vessels operating in the region. For an outside viewer it seems that all that needs to be done to achieve this goal is to hire people with a basic knowledge of what a fish looks like and send them on fishing cruises to record what they see. Piece of cake, right?

Not surprisingly, reality is quite different. A basic knowledge of what a fish looks like is clearly not enough when you need to identify dozens of different species, some of them looking very similar, and a fishing cruise is often anything but a cruise: it can be several weeks long in harsh and uncomfortable conditions among crew members who are not necessarily happy to be observed and may not speak the same language as the observer. Furthermore, accurate data is the cornerstone of good fisheries management, so the quality of the data provided by these observers, who are totally independent from the fishing companies, is essential for verifying the quality and accuracy of the data provided by the companies themselves.

Select the right people, train them to become qualified observers, verify the quality of the data they have collected at sea, organise the work of observers at the national and regional level — for all of these activities there is a need for qualified people. And this scale of qualifications has drawn a new career path (Observer–Debriefer–Trainer–National/Regional Coordinator) for young Pacific Islanders — an opportunity several of them have already firmly seized.

Aymeric Desurmont
Fisheries Information Specialist