cortez marine
In Memoriam
Training cyanide fisherman as if results reallly mattered;
If it is true that coral reefs are in trouble and that the international marine ornamental trade is complicit, then it must also be true that acting appropriately and quickly to reform this situation is imperative.
For many years, NGOs have had a love-hate relationship with this industry. They blame it for destructive and non-sustainable practices and then they themselves assume the burden of field trainings that produce year after year results so small that no one in a business culture could reform with....let alone hundreds of collectors and dozens of exporters and importers.
Career and professional collectors and dealers in marine tropicals take many years to learn the secrets and the tricks of the trade. Policies and procedures for collecting and handling fishes cannot be taken lightly and glossed over and being proficient cannot be learned so easily.
Preparing oneself to train divers and handlers thru Interviews with real collectors cannot possibly be taken seriously as substitute for genuine talent and ability, The policy of not involving experienced professionals from within the trade to develop and actualize field training programs have produced now years of disappointing results in what we heard in the mision statements was a race to save coral reefs from the trade.
If there is a crisis on the reefs and if the trade is a part of that, then how can slow motion results be acceptable?
I submit to you that if this trade is to be held accountable for its practices after a decade and more of these 'NGO initiated reform programs' then the status quo of reform and conversion schemes must also be held accountable for their failure. They have failed together.
I submit to you that the industries several thousand fish collectors can be converted to sustainable collecting methodologies much quicker and cheaper then what we have been conditioned to believe.
1. Phase one; Net training and handling must come first.
Fish collectors are the point of the spear in the entire chain of custody and in all the issues arising from the question of reefs impact.Therefore, what will get them off of poison fishing and crowbar collecting, killing fishes needlessly thru lack of decompression and bad handling needs to be frontloaded .The basic skills transfer to get them off killing coral for a living is not so involved a training project.
However, it becomes too involved and complicated if burdened upfront by the conditions imposed by too much paperwork, surveys and certification schemes.
This is not to say that there cannot be reef surveys, certification schemes and paperwork later...but to lead with that has alienated and discouraged nearly everyone involved that counts most...the divers!
After Phase one....the conditions and qualifiers desired by the scientific community will not only be much easier to achieve but more readily accepted by fisherfolk.
Conditioning all progress upon acceptance of these schemes has sabatoged the entire program and always will. The mission must be split and skills transfer cannot be dependant upon so much else to go forth at the same time.
Theoretically...it might make sense to kill two birds with one stone...but the actual effect has been to scare away the birds.
2. Training must be commercially competent.
Many fisherman may seem less aware by our standards, but they can spot non-commercial behavior a mile away. In fact, it is we who have been unaware and have erroneously believed that converting fisherman is easy. It may become easier if they are first impressed with the trainers ability to actually train them by virtue of his own abilities. Training by substitute teachers, by proxy, by the manual and by trade outsiders....with inadequate materials does not work very well.
On the other hand, commercial people trained by commercial people with correct commercial netting materials for commercial results may work very well indeed!
Commercial trainings take place often for commercial purposes. When divers are needed in Mexico, Tonga or Vanuatu for example, They are trained by others who can dive, collect, handle and produce results superior to themselves. This garners a respect beyond just the personal and allows for rapid-fire results on a time table.
Netting material is generally a small component of commercial trainings. Its inclusion is simply routine. However; for what ever reason, NGO trainings have been notoriously berift of the right hand net and barrier netting materials and have suffered mightily because of this.
In Bali and the Philippines, some divers have seen several trainings but no netting. The netting, minimized by the outsider was absolutely essential to the diver to carry on the conversion.
The refusal or failure to supply the requisite nets has handicapped many years of 'training programs' and discredited them in the eyes of the fisherman. This simply has to stop if anyone cares enough to be effective.
Phase three;
Training fisherman for sustainable practices and for superior produce should be both cost and time efficient.
There is a perrenial legend of a gravy train of cash being milked from the trades unfortunate issues...and has ruined alliances and unity of purpose to the cause. The trade is not united behind NGO initiatives and this has a lot to do with it.
Again, in commercial training... cost efficiency is critical and there is never time to lose.
Get in, get it done, follow up w/ supervision til it takes and get on with the weekly flow of product. A commercial mindset on these matters is important as it gels with the fishermans view of things as well.
He is his own enterprise. He must produce results or suffer the consequences in a short time frame.
Divers tend to be primarily focused on their income , basic needs and food supply. Commercial training speaks to that. Training for the divers own priorites will actually encourage him and make him far easier to get good results out of...now and later if you wish to return to enlist him in survey research and certification administration.
However, there is no better way to discourage most divers [ and dealers for that matter] then to come to them, tag on your own agenda and say "Behold, I bring you more paperwork!"
Imagine if you will, a thousand divers converted from cyanide fishing to netsmanship first.
Imagine then, how the issues of reef management and survey work, certification notions and improving the fishermans lot in life can then benefit.
Pegging an all or nothing blunderbus approach to the entire movement has stalled it and more coral reef has been poisoned died daily while we stuggle with the politics of this and the conflict in that. Making fishermans reform a Western environmental issue, a funding gravy train and a great divider between business and the NGO community has been a disaster for the environment. Anything hoped to be certified, fine tuned better, documented or surveyed fell victim to the simple failure to connect with and enlist the sectors involved towards a common purpose..
NGO administrators priorities cannot be all their own in this struggle. They must take the blinders off and see what makes divers respond, co-operate and stay the course and what will make dealers support them.
Dealers and business people, like divers live by the imperatives of cost and time efficiency, productive results, better fish and cash flow. Learning to mesh with these other priorities will allow far greater results for everyones agenda and the coral reefs will finally get the lighter touch they need. Afterall, if its not sustainable proposition, what is it? No one makes a living, profit or a calling off a dead coral reef.
Sincerely, Steve Robinson
If it is true that coral reefs are in trouble and that the international marine ornamental trade is complicit, then it must also be true that acting appropriately and quickly to reform this situation is imperative.
For many years, NGOs have had a love-hate relationship with this industry. They blame it for destructive and non-sustainable practices and then they themselves assume the burden of field trainings that produce year after year results so small that no one in a business culture could reform with....let alone hundreds of collectors and dozens of exporters and importers.
Career and professional collectors and dealers in marine tropicals take many years to learn the secrets and the tricks of the trade. Policies and procedures for collecting and handling fishes cannot be taken lightly and glossed over and being proficient cannot be learned so easily.
Preparing oneself to train divers and handlers thru Interviews with real collectors cannot possibly be taken seriously as substitute for genuine talent and ability, The policy of not involving experienced professionals from within the trade to develop and actualize field training programs have produced now years of disappointing results in what we heard in the mision statements was a race to save coral reefs from the trade.
If there is a crisis on the reefs and if the trade is a part of that, then how can slow motion results be acceptable?
I submit to you that if this trade is to be held accountable for its practices after a decade and more of these 'NGO initiated reform programs' then the status quo of reform and conversion schemes must also be held accountable for their failure. They have failed together.
I submit to you that the industries several thousand fish collectors can be converted to sustainable collecting methodologies much quicker and cheaper then what we have been conditioned to believe.
1. Phase one; Net training and handling must come first.
Fish collectors are the point of the spear in the entire chain of custody and in all the issues arising from the question of reefs impact.Therefore, what will get them off of poison fishing and crowbar collecting, killing fishes needlessly thru lack of decompression and bad handling needs to be frontloaded .The basic skills transfer to get them off killing coral for a living is not so involved a training project.
However, it becomes too involved and complicated if burdened upfront by the conditions imposed by too much paperwork, surveys and certification schemes.
This is not to say that there cannot be reef surveys, certification schemes and paperwork later...but to lead with that has alienated and discouraged nearly everyone involved that counts most...the divers!
After Phase one....the conditions and qualifiers desired by the scientific community will not only be much easier to achieve but more readily accepted by fisherfolk.
Conditioning all progress upon acceptance of these schemes has sabatoged the entire program and always will. The mission must be split and skills transfer cannot be dependant upon so much else to go forth at the same time.
Theoretically...it might make sense to kill two birds with one stone...but the actual effect has been to scare away the birds.
2. Training must be commercially competent.
Many fisherman may seem less aware by our standards, but they can spot non-commercial behavior a mile away. In fact, it is we who have been unaware and have erroneously believed that converting fisherman is easy. It may become easier if they are first impressed with the trainers ability to actually train them by virtue of his own abilities. Training by substitute teachers, by proxy, by the manual and by trade outsiders....with inadequate materials does not work very well.
On the other hand, commercial people trained by commercial people with correct commercial netting materials for commercial results may work very well indeed!
Commercial trainings take place often for commercial purposes. When divers are needed in Mexico, Tonga or Vanuatu for example, They are trained by others who can dive, collect, handle and produce results superior to themselves. This garners a respect beyond just the personal and allows for rapid-fire results on a time table.
Netting material is generally a small component of commercial trainings. Its inclusion is simply routine. However; for what ever reason, NGO trainings have been notoriously berift of the right hand net and barrier netting materials and have suffered mightily because of this.
In Bali and the Philippines, some divers have seen several trainings but no netting. The netting, minimized by the outsider was absolutely essential to the diver to carry on the conversion.
The refusal or failure to supply the requisite nets has handicapped many years of 'training programs' and discredited them in the eyes of the fisherman. This simply has to stop if anyone cares enough to be effective.
Phase three;
Training fisherman for sustainable practices and for superior produce should be both cost and time efficient.
There is a perrenial legend of a gravy train of cash being milked from the trades unfortunate issues...and has ruined alliances and unity of purpose to the cause. The trade is not united behind NGO initiatives and this has a lot to do with it.
Again, in commercial training... cost efficiency is critical and there is never time to lose.
Get in, get it done, follow up w/ supervision til it takes and get on with the weekly flow of product. A commercial mindset on these matters is important as it gels with the fishermans view of things as well.
He is his own enterprise. He must produce results or suffer the consequences in a short time frame.
Divers tend to be primarily focused on their income , basic needs and food supply. Commercial training speaks to that. Training for the divers own priorites will actually encourage him and make him far easier to get good results out of...now and later if you wish to return to enlist him in survey research and certification administration.
However, there is no better way to discourage most divers [ and dealers for that matter] then to come to them, tag on your own agenda and say "Behold, I bring you more paperwork!"
Imagine if you will, a thousand divers converted from cyanide fishing to netsmanship first.
Imagine then, how the issues of reef management and survey work, certification notions and improving the fishermans lot in life can then benefit.
Pegging an all or nothing blunderbus approach to the entire movement has stalled it and more coral reef has been poisoned died daily while we stuggle with the politics of this and the conflict in that. Making fishermans reform a Western environmental issue, a funding gravy train and a great divider between business and the NGO community has been a disaster for the environment. Anything hoped to be certified, fine tuned better, documented or surveyed fell victim to the simple failure to connect with and enlist the sectors involved towards a common purpose..
NGO administrators priorities cannot be all their own in this struggle. They must take the blinders off and see what makes divers respond, co-operate and stay the course and what will make dealers support them.
Dealers and business people, like divers live by the imperatives of cost and time efficiency, productive results, better fish and cash flow. Learning to mesh with these other priorities will allow far greater results for everyones agenda and the coral reefs will finally get the lighter touch they need. Afterall, if its not sustainable proposition, what is it? No one makes a living, profit or a calling off a dead coral reef.
Sincerely, Steve Robinson
