Four TFD staff travelled on the old RV Manaui early this month to conduct new fishing methods training to 20 fishermen on each remote northern island of Tuvalu included, Nanumaga, Nanumea and Niutao in order to further their knowledge on new fishing methods utilizing new fishing gears provided by the Overseas Fisheries Cooperative Foundations OFCF, Japan. These new fishing techniques were developed to adapt local fishers so that they might also specialise in pelagic species instead of fishing and disrupting inshore marine resources.
The training began with the in-class session with tackle handed out to each fisherman as well they were taught on the installation of every gear. The second portion of the training is where fishermen went out to sea on the old RV Manaui from 2 am to 2 pm for a practical on four forms of fishing, includes vertical longliner fishing, squid fishing, electric reel fishing and mid-water trawling utilizing their new fishing gears.
Nelly Seniola, Fisheries Operation & the development Training Officer, stated, “This fishing trip training is a five-yr program. The govt of Tuvalu is working in collaboration with the OFCF project in Japan on the supplying latest fishing gear”.
‘Nukulaelae and Vaitupu were the first islands to place this training into practice,’ he added.
One of the participants of the training, a fisherman from Nanumea commented that he did learn a lot of new things like fitting new fishing gears and therefore the most vital piece is that he can do other sorts of fishing methods rather than just trolling because it was the principal sort of fishing that they used to which is expensive and time consumed.
Training began on Nanumaga Island, followed by Nanumea and finally on Niutao Island. The training was progressively completed in the week along the island of Niutao where TFD personnel have returned safely back to the capital, Funafuti, today Sunday, August 29th.