Trawl fishermen win training award

SETFIA and the South East Maritime Education Centre (SEAMEC) have won the Seafood Industry Victoria’s Seafood Industry Training Award for 2011. The award is recognition of the Improved Environmental Operations course completed by 82 South East Trawl fishermen. The award was presented to Richard Owen, SEAMEC’s General Manager and Simon Boag, SETFIA’s CEO by Victoria’s Minister for Agriculture and Food Security the Hon. Peter Walsh. The training course is certified under the national qualifications framework and was fully assessed. The course explained the Australian community’s expectations of the fishing industry and then worked through issues such as reporting, mitigating protected species interactions, marine pollution, foreign aquatic organisms and how fishery assessments work. The course has brought about immediate benefits including dramatically improved reporting levels and a faster than planned implementation of seabird management plans. SETFIA would again like to thank the Fisheries and Research Development Corporation for funding this project. SETFIA is committed to at least a single day’s training of South East Trawl fisherman each year on an ongoing basis. [Image by Emily Guy]