On The Job: Fishery Officer
Although the job can be challenging at times, as not everyone he encounters at sea is happy to see him, New Zealand Fishery Compliance Officer Anthony Little tells Atuna that the obstacles are small compared to the bigger goal; sustaining the fishery resource for future generations. Protecting fisheries and ensuring illegal activity is stopped and penalized are some of the most important tasks within a Fishery Compliance Officer’s role.
Growing up on a coastal farm in Golden Bay, at the very top of the South Island of New Zealand, Little was taught from a young age about the importance of guarding the ocean. He says that because he is of Maori descent (indigenous Polynesians in New Zealand) a special respect for the land and the sea is ingrained in him.
Little has worked as a fishery officer within the Ministry of Fisheries of New Zealand since the year 2000. He is now employed as the Chief Compliance Officer for South Island’s Nelson and Marlborough regions, where he leads a team of over 30 fishery officers.
At age 14, when Little obtained his open water dive certificate and first started to explore the ocean, his appreciation for life under water began. “Throughout my childhood and upbringing I always had a passion for the sea,” he says. One of his first tasks in safeguarding the ocean was participating in the rescue of whales that had become stranded on the beach in Golden Bay.
“These experiences taught me the importance of preserving and protecting our fisheries resource for future generations.” And in his job, Little explains that he has the opportunity to influence and change other people’s views and behaviors around fishing sustainably as well, so they can join him in working towards this goal.
His role as a fishery officer consists of working with partners and stakeholders to ensure fishing rules are followed, in order to guarantee sustainable management of fisheries.
The job does however not come without difficulties, and Little says that one of the biggest challenges is dealing with individuals and groups who “have a total disregard for fisheries and the effect illegal fishing has on the future of our fisheries”.
In his work he has come across numerous vessels that fish illegally. When such incidents occur, Little’s job is to gather the appropriate evidence to ensure the culprits can be held accountable for their actions.
He was the officer in charge of the boarding team of the New Zealand side of operations on Operation Nasse, a high seas fisheries patrol in the South Pacific in 2017, with the aim to combat IUU fishing and identify operators that did not comply with the management measures of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). “It was a privilege to be able to play a role in helping ensure fish and aquatic life caught on the high seas is taken legally and recorded correctly.”
“Being part of a tight team that has put many hours into apprehending and then successfully prosecuting people for blatantly plundering our fisheries resource is always very rewarding.”
In addition to illegal fishing being a major problem in the Pacific ocean, there has also been concern for the living conditions of those who rely on fishing as their livelihood. There have been numerous reports of poor standards onboard fishing boats, but Little says improvements have been made in recent times. “While not all vessels are the same, living conditions in general have increased a lot since I first started as a fishery officer,” he says. And sometimes, conditions even exceed all expectations. “Some commercial vessels are state-of-the-art, you have to remind yourself sometimes that you are on a fishing boat.”
When Atuna asked Little to describe a regular day at work, he said this was difficult to do, as every day is different and what he does on a day to day basis changes constantly, with his tasks ranging from boarding fishing vessels to teaching school children about ocean preservation. “One day you can be inspecting a 100 meter factory trawler and the next you are talking to a fisher at the local wharf.”
Although a large part of his job requires Little to be out on the water, his role as Chief Compliance Officer and team leader for other fisheries officers requires him to also spend some time in an office. While he works both on land and at sea, being at sea is definitely Little’s favorite part of the job, and he says he tries to get out as much as possible, particularly for vessel patrols.
And the benefits of having the ocean as your workplace are many, he says; “From the truly stunning sights you get to experience, to climbing up a rope ladder on the side of a large factory vessel knowing you must hang on no matter what, to witnessing first-hand the weird and wonderful creatures that are fished up from the depths of the ocean.”