Call for more extension work in fishing industry

Press, 5 March 1982, Page 22

Call for more extension work in fishing industry

A call for greater extension services for marine fishing has come from an assistant lecturer in agricultural economics at Lincoln College, Miss D. K. O’Donnell.

Miss O’Donnell has worked as a fisherman out of Wellington port, and served for a time as a fisheries economist with the Fishing Industry Board.

She believes that although the annual production of the domestic fishing industry is comparable with the horticultural industry’s fruit production, it has much less in the way of extension services. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, for instance, employs around 50 horticultural advisory officers. Their jobs involve personal contact with growers, discussing changes and helping to prepare loan applications. As well, they work through, field days, courses, demonstrations, and the media. Compared with that, the extension effort put into fisheries amounts to a monthly magazine, miscellaneous

papers, and some advisory work on mussels and oyster farming, Miss O’Donnell says.

At government level, fisheries research and management is centred on two divisions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The fisheries research division employs about 150. About half are concerned with freshwater fishing.

The division runs three research vessels, and a lot of their research is published in “Catch,” the Ministry’s monthly magazine for marine fishermen. The magazine is highly valued by fishermen, Miss O’Donnell says, but the industry deserves more.

The division has recently taken on a liaison officer to deal with other M.A.F. divisions, government, and the Fishing Industry Board. The fisheries management division is mainly concerned with licensing and • net inspection. They have some 80 fisheries officers, but their role as law enforcers and inspectors makes them un-

suitable advisers for fishermen, she claims. “Fishermen can’t be expected to discuss their problems with an individual who also wears a policeman’s cap.

“Agriculture learnt that lesson 20 years ago — dairy shed inspectors and weed control officers could not double as consultants. The functions must be kept separate.” Mr T. E. Norris, assistant director of the fisheries management division, disagrees. “One could say there is a conflict, but we don’t see it as such. We did. a complete review of their role in 1980, and the policeman task is at the bottom of their list of duties. Extension is at the top.

“The group has very much welcomed this turnaround. In the final analysis, they do have to police, but they are trying to educate to improve the situation before it gets to that.”

But according to Miss O’Donnell, other divisions of the Ministry work hard to keep the two tasks apart. The advisory services division has continuing problems through having inspection services carried out under their wing, even though it’s not done by advisers. Mr Norris says that the 80 officers work with schools and community groups, as well as with commercial fishermen. Officers attend local meetings of the Commercial Fishermen’s Association to give information on gear and fisheries, and to explain regulations to fishermen and hear their views.

Forty-four management officers attempt to provide a link between researchers and fishermen and officers in the field, Mr Norris says. Many of the management officers are university graduates. Miss O’Donnell doubts if an emphasis on sciencebased graduates in fisheries management is necessarily a good thing. “The world is full of scientists managing fisheries, and they are the bane of development everywhere, because their training tells them, When in doubt, don’t.’ Development requires controlled experimentation.

“For instance, scientists have told me that we should not be developing our offshore fisheries until we know the size and nature of the resource. Yet the best data for studying that is in the catches of fishermen.” She claims, too, that a lot of the information being produced is not of much value to fishermen. “For instance, information on potential over-fishing is of more use to management than fishermen, because fisheries is a common property resource.

“If a farmer knows he is overstocking then he will take remedial action, because it is in his interests. However, if a fisherman

knows there is over-fishing, he’s less likely to comply with calls to reduce unless he’s sure that everybody is going to reduce. It needs legislation,” she says. She suggests that services like discussion groups, meetings and conferences, displays, magazines, and radio and television programs could all be used more widely.

She would like to see. for instance, a radio slot after the early morning marine weather forecast used to give up to the minute fishing information. Trained consultants should be available to fishermen to give information on catches, prices, and techniques, she says. They could provide financial and business expertise, and provide links between industry and management.

“There’s a huge demand for these services. Like farmers, fishermen often need to be given a hand to solve their own problems. “Looking at bluefin tuna, we know that there is a lucrative market for the fish. But how many East Coast fishermen know the size of the bluefin resource on their doorstep, or when they are there?

“How many have any idea of the techniques that could be used to catch them?” It is this sort of information, up to date with the market and with seasonal changes, that Miss O’Donnell would like to see an extension service providing, more efficiently than it does now. The Fishing Industry Board, based in Wellington and allied with the Fishing Industry Training Council, claims that such help is already available.

The F. 1.8. was set up in 1964 and a levy on fishermen, wholesalers and retailers finances its activities. They include research on marketing, processing, economics, and catching. Mr G. C. Billington, manager of training and information services, says that education in catching methods is not the main problem facing the industry.

“Most fishermen are

aware of the species that are available, and how to ftatch them. The much greater problem is finding markets. That’s been the case with hoki for a long time, and it’s the case for squid at present. They know how to catch it. but they can’t market it to a level that is economic.”

According to Mr Billington, that is why more of the F.1.8.’s budget goes into marketing research and consumer education than into ongoing training of fishermen.

He says, though, that the board does sponsor seminars on subjects such as the bluefin tuna resource and business techniques. “And we’re fast realising that we have to take these seminars to the ports and drum up interest, rather than wait for the fishermen to ask. Often they have a limited school background, and they’ll resist anything that looks like ‘education.’ It’s a selling job as far as we’re concerned.”

Mr Billington also points -to the fisheries training courses offered at polytechnics at Auckland, Nelson, and Dunedin, as sources of initial training.

“Of course there’s always a need to keep fishermen up to date with hew techniques, but the species themselves, and the basic techology, are well known.” He says the suggestion of a radio program is an excellent one. and he would like to see it taken up-