Meet the Ministrys new Chief Executive - Ministry of Fisheries

4 TheBite APRIL 2008
The observer programme usually arranges the trips before
the observer arrives at a fishing vessel, but the task of getting
onto the small commercial boats can fall to the observer.
With smaller boats, the observer’s negotiating skills with the
skipper is important, particularly when there are difficulties
finding out which boats are active at any time and place. If all
the polite approaches fail then the observer programme has
to turn to the Fisheries Act to get the observer onboard.
COLLECTINg SCIENTIFIC INFORMaTION aNd SaMPLES IS ONE OF
OBSERVERS’ kEy ROLES. THE LaRgEST EXaMPLE OF a COLOSSaL
SqUId CaUgHT IN THE ROSS SEa WaS ONE OF THE MORE
SPECTaCULaR SaMPLES RECORdEd By aN MFISH OBSERVER.
“The good news is that the stigma observers often received
from inshore fishing operators, in particular, is now passing.
They’re beginning to appreciate that we’re not there to
scrutinise their every move, we’re there to safeguard the longterm
viability of fisheries - and we have to gather statistics
and facts to do that.
“I think in general, fishermen respond to observations and
care a lot more than they get credit for. Some of the larger
fishing companies have spent lots of money on improving
seabird mitigation techniques, yet that kind of fact, largely
goes under the radar.”
hOW ThE PROGRAMME OPERATES
Funded solely by levies from the commercial fishing industry,
the programme operates as an independent programme,
based at MFish head office.
With just four observer officers managing all observers around
the country, there is a huge amount of logistical planning
involved.
“We operate on a knife-edge a lot of the time, just waiting
to see what might happen next. It often comes down to
requests for new information or the weather changing, so
boat schedules then change, which in turn impacts the timing
for getting observers across the country and onboard boats.
“It’s the constant juggle of logistics which makes managing
the programme very complex.”
“Just to get observers on our books, they need to go through
an intensive screening programme – looking at how they’ll
likely handle situations at sea, or difficult scenarios, etc –
because there’s nowhere to go once you’re at sea.
“Once they’re accepted, observers then need to go through
a training programme, be fully briefed before each trip, put on
one boat or another, be debriefed afterwards, have their data
processed for analysing and so on.”
WhO DOES IT AND WhAT’S ThE ATTRACTION?
A lot of interest comes from university graduates because it’s
a good next step for marine biology – providing experience
at the coal-face.
KEy FACTS
• The observer programme is an independent
programme funded by the commercial fishing industry.
• The observer programme currently has 55 observers:
45 male/10 female
• Observer coverage for 07/08 targets 7462 sea days
a year (note one 12 hour shift per person equals one
sea day)
• Observer coverage is often steered by stock
monitoring or the request for more scientific data
• Average inshore fishery trips range from 7-10 days or
up to 35 days for deepwater trips
• International trips can be as long as a couple of
months. One of the largest trips took place last year
which saw a female observer at sea in the South
Georgia area for 150 days
• Observers can earn up to $290 per day depending on
experience and level of work required