This iniative recognises and applauds fishers who are making changes over and above what is required of them, to ensure healthy marine ecosystems and the benefits we derive from them.
Those at sea working directly with our marine resources have the power to inspire and directly implement change in the fishing industry. It is for this reason that the WWF Responsible Fisheries Programme (RFP) has initiated a project whereby individuals who are making significant changes in the fishing industry are recognised and acknowledged.
Every second month, WWF RFP chooses a champion whose story inspires change in the fishing industry, and profiles them in Fishing Industry News. Champions are chosen because their actions show they are committed to responsible fishing and are working towards a better, sustainable future.
We encourage all fishers to send in your stories about how things are changing in your fishery, and how you are having an impact.
WWF Champion Observer Victor Ngcongo's story.
Victor Ngcongo has always had a deep love for the ocean, which stems from his youth growing up on the south coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal where he spent his days swimming and fishing. It was this very love for the ocean that ultimately led him to work as a fisheries observer in Cape Town where his dedicated work has now earned him the title of a WWF Champion Observer.
Victor’s journey has been, in a word, serendipitous. He started out as an engineer on the tuna longliner “Drifter”, after which time he decided to take a break from seafaring life and put his welding skills to good use. He spent some time designing and producing burglar bars and gates but soon began to ache for the sea again and was inevitably lured back. It was this search for a seagoing job that accidentally led him to become an observer! While on his way to an interview at an engineering company one day, Victor lost his way and accidentally walked into the building of the observer/monitoring company Capfish, seeking directions to his interview. His detour into Capfish unfortunately lost him his interview opportunity at the engineering company, but, fortunately, it landed him a job as an observer with the company. And the rest, as Victor says, is history.
“While I was in the fishing industry, I saw things I didn’t like and wanted to change” says Victor. In particular, Victor encountered incidences where fish was routinely dumped during fishing operations, and other vulnerable non-target species, such as sharks and seabirds, were unintentionally caught on the long lines. Victor acknowledges that times have however changed and the way people are fishing has changed. Amongst other things, people are moving towards smaller fleets due to the increased risk of investment caused by the scarcity of fish. An interesting knock-on effect of this though is that fishers are retaining much more of their catch than they did in the past. And this has resulted in a change in fishing protocol. Whereas in the past he saw a lot of dumping, Victor notes that, these days, perhaps due to the scarcity of fish, the vessels are wisely holding on to everything they catch.
Victor has been an inspiring observer on many types of fishing vessels over the last five years, not only by doing his valuable job as an observer through collecting and capturing biological data important for fisheries managers, but also through changing views and helping fishermen understand of some of the broader marine conservation issues at sea. He has gotten more actively involved in driving changes at sea and believes that being an observer is more than simply checking up and collecting data – its about education. This was exactly the case when he arrived as an observer on a joint-venture tuna vessel recently and he found they had no line-cutter or turtle de-hooker onboard. These are essential tools in releasing turtles and sharks that accidentally get caught on the line set off tuna longliners and Victor understood the implications of not carrying these tools. Thus, to ensure that they could release a turtle if caught, he set about making these tools from essentially nothing, finding what he needed on the boat and using his engineering and welding skills to construct them. Victor knew that, although many boats may never catch a turtle in a year it is still always a possibility and, in this case, his initiative proved fortuitous as it was in that very trip that they accidentally caught a turtle. Through this experience, Victor taught the crew and all onboard how to make the devices and what the correct procedure is to release a turtle, and captured it all on video to be used in training courses later. “Telling the fishermen about the animals and why we need de-hookers, for example, is more effective than just telling them they need a de-hooker,” Victor says.
Victor has participated in the WWF Responsible Fisheries Training course and thoroughly enjoyed it. What made the most impact on him was that people are so willing to become involved and work towards preventing animals being caught as bycatch. “Telling people about the birds for example – how many chicks [the birds] can have, that they only breed from 8-10 years old – [it] makes people stop [and] think again,” he says.
At WWF, a Champion is someone who is doing something extraordinary and contributing towards the conservation of our marine resources. Through his work as an observer, Victor has seized the opportunity to educate and change the way things are done at sea. He has worked tirelessly on boats to test, modify and trial different designs on tori lines (lines flown behind vessels to scare birds away from the danger zones) and provides organisations like WWF SA with valuable information on the design and potential improvements of these kinds of mitigation measures.
Victor encourages all other observers and those involved in the fishing industry to “look beyond, and become actively involved in [finding] solutions”.
Our latest Champions
Tuna pole Skippers Steven Cameron Dow and Mark Pretorius, has made a rather simple change with larger consequences. After attending the Responsible Fisheries training course, Steven and Mark attached portable ashtrays to their boat. Now, instead of risking cigarette butts being tossed overboard, Steve and Mark ensure that all cigarette butts get disposed on land and cannot spoil our oceans. Cigarette butts are the most common litter found in our oceans, with half a million butts reaching the Los Angeles coast every month! Cigarette butts in our seas will last for 12 years or more, constantly being circulated by our ocean currents. They can harm a variety of animals including seabirds and small fish; it spoils habitats and will have a negative impact on fish stocks through food web impacts. Litter also has a large economic impact such as lost revenue through poor tourism opportunities and increasing costs of litter clean ups. A small change such as Steve and Mark’s,to prevent cigarette butts littering the ocean, can and will make a dent not only in those half a million butts found in Los Angeles each month, but in the litter found around our coast as well.
This is the type of commitment that WWF recognises and hopes to promote through the Champion Skipper programme. We hope that the stories of these skippers inspires others to make changes – big or small – to ensure we all have fish in the future.
Champion skipper Jose Fransisco
Jose is a hake longline skipper who has been instrumental in conducting trials and testing bycatch mitigation measures on his boat. These trials which involved many trips to sea at his cost where conducted to increase the rate at which his gear sinks to get it out of the reach of vulnerable seabirds as quickly as possible and to test the effectiveness of tori lines. He has also made his vessel, Seapride II, available to the press and media for photo shoots and interviews; all for educational purposes to inform the consumers and fellow fishers about responsible fisheries.
Champion Skipper Louis Coetzee
Our first Champion Skipper is Louis Coetzee, skipper of the Sea Harvest hake trawler Harvest Gardinia,. Louis has been in the fishing industry for 40 years, and attended the WWF RFP training course with enthusiasm and a commitment to implement what he learnt about saving albatross.“I look at the seabirds with new eyes now. It’s important to teach the younger ones what you know” says Louis this referring to what he learned in the WWF RFP training about the biology and importance of seabirds.
