More Proteins

SPC Instructs 25 Fisheries Students

Twenty-five Pacific island) last month completed a weeks South Pacific Commissi fisheries course at Noumea. TIT have now returned to their od islands to put to practical use wh they have learned.

The Secretary-General of SPC (Dr. Ralph Bedell) told F 5 that the main object of the com was to get more protein into Islanders’ diets. Another aim t to capitalise on their native site so that regular fish supplies w# assured.

This latter object involved gg husbandry, with regular replsJ ment of stocks, and also the velopment of fish suitable for palate. Dr. Bedell said that Islanders had always known how catch fish, both freshwater i marine, but had never been tarn the know-how on replacements.B The trainees came from as ■ afield as Netherlands New GuiLi in the west, to Tahiti in the es from Guam, the Carolines Marianas, north of the equaton the Cooks and Tonga, in the sac The course was held under direction of Mr. H. van Pel, Commission’s fisheries officer.

Food and Agriculture Organisac of UN co-operated by providim co-director, other expert persorn equipment for demonstrations, part of the fares.

The trainees were selected I their own Administrations, DR. BEDELL said he had nn seen students who were n interested or who applied tbl selves better to their task i these trainees.

The course, the first of its H was the culmination of two yy planning. It covered many asn? of fisheries, including boat-builli and maintenance, marine engg fishing equipment, net-m a k : navigation, fish-breeding, o;c culture, fish preservation, fishri management, the shell industryy protection of marine resources. Dr. Bedell said that emplc on subsistence fishing had beie main object in the course. 0 mercial fishing would come latea a more advanced course.

Francisco P. De Leon, a j warden from Guam, echoed sentiments of all trainees whee said that they had gained ime able knowledge of fish culture..; the other 24, he plans to pasi what he has learned to his fee Islanders.

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Thirteen of the students who attended the South Pacific Commission’s weeks fisheries course at Noumea, photographed on the steps of the aft which brought them, at the end of February, to Sydney, from [?] they dispersed to their homes. (See Article on Opposite Page)

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PA MARSTERS, from the looks, amazed Mr. A. N. Swin leld, a Sydney naval architect, (ave instruction on boat-build ind marine engines. Within a short time, loapa was able to propeller and engine installa- Jesigns in a manner that could e faulted. ; students paid several visits e two experimental fish ponds lished by the SPC at the Port ‘ire Farm School, near Noumea.

Leal lessons in navigation were to them during short cruises le Orsom 111, the research which the French Institute of lia made available for train- They were also given practical ction at sea in handlining, g, trolling and settling gill Jtical lessons were given in I, drying and smoking fish. ■ fisheries management, they •iven a general introduction to ration, and to ways of organ and managing a fishermen’s rative society. They were ; elements of marketing, and (iven lessons in bookkeeping.

Bedell said: “The Fisheries ng Course has made a re

markable contribution to better life in the Pacific Islands. The trainees have applied themselves and have learned what they need to help their own Islands people to have more

and better fish to eat. The good work in fisheries done by the vari ous Islands governments should be further helped by the trainees who have attended this course.”

Both the fish and the student looked equally unhappy when Mr. H. van Pel (Fisheries Officer to the South Pacific Commission) and a group of Pacific Islands trainees viewed a good catch at the fish markets, Noumea, New Caledonia.

The 25 trainees, representing 14 Pacific

Territories, took a keen interest in the 13weeks course arranged by the Commission. A demonstration was given at the Port Laguerre farm training school near Noumea, where last year Mr. H. van Pel established two experi mental fish-breeding ponds for edible fresh water fish.